Crime Is Down. With One Exception: Republican Politicians
It is easy to say all politicians are corrupt, in large part because people who dislike or disagree with elected officials often use hyperbolic language to generate attention.
So the words “criminal” and “crime” do a lot of work in politics. Crime of the sort we actually care about (involving acts of implied or real violence) is down. Really down.
According to FBI statistics comparing the first quarter 2023 to the first quarter of 2024, there are substantial drops in every category, including murder (-26.4%), rape (-25.7%), robbery (-17.8%), and property crime (-15.1%). While these numbers are incomplete and subject to revision, they do fit neatly with statistics over the last year.
People don’t believe it. After all, the Republican party and their presumed presidential nominee repeat a theme about President Joe Biden’s failing to reduce "high crime rates."
Coming to California real soon: A bunch of department store executives, aligned with law enforcers who think punishment stops crime, will be asking California voters to roll back decade-old criminal justice reforms in November, based primarily on anecdotal accounts about shoplifters. Trust me, their message will be fear-filled, presenting imagery implying random acts of violence.
More than three-quarters of Americans said that there is more crime in the U.S. than a year ago and more than half of Americans said the same about crime in their local area, according to a November 2023 Gallup poll,
According to a recent poll by The Economist, a supermajority of American voters say crime is a very important or somewhat important issue. Pounding the drum on supposedly rising crime by Trump and other Republicans appears to be breaking through, with a majority disapproving of Biden’s handling of crime.
Which brings me to today’s topic; the Republican Crime Wave.
This is a real problem nationwide. Whether it’s (alleged) illegal campaign contributions, domestic violence, sex crimes, or election/voter interference, a list of recent arrestees around the country is decidedly weighted toward the party of law and order when political affiliation is noted in press accounts. A list of Republicans arrested for non-consensual sex crimes has over 1200 entries.
By no means am I saying that Democrats and other partisans don’t commit crimes. It’s just that so many Republicans keep getting caught. It’s almost as if talking tough against crime ought to be considered a symptom of a personality inclined to commit crime.
The most recent high profile Republican convicted of felonies is 34 time offender Donald J Trump. His guilty verdict is being held up against a guilty verdict for the son of the current president as some sort of proof of the validity of rule of law.
Republicans aren’t buying that. They’re babbling about the Biden crime family and billions of dollars from overseas, even though their crack House committee failed to come up with evidence.
Right wing hostility to the judicial process includes a steady stream of invectives, threats, and harassment directed at just about anybody involved in a trial they don’t like. Their stochastic cheerleader points and his followers act out, mostly anonymously, of course.
Here’s Dean Obeidallah:
What don’t we see in response to this criminal conduct by Trump supporters targeting those who seek to hold Trump accountable?! Trump denouncing or condemning their actions. That is by design. In fact, we’ve seen the opposite since Trump’s Jan 6 terrorist attack on the Capitol intended to keep him in power despite losing the 2020 election. Trump has defended his Jan 6 attackers as “hostages” and “political prisoners,” vowing to pardon them.
Even more alarming is that over the past year, Trump has increasingly celebrated these MAGA terrorists. Convicted felon Trump now opens rallies with a rendition of the Star-Spangled banner sung by those who committed the Jan 6 attack, known as the “J6 prison choir.” “Ladies and gentlemen, please rise for the horribly and unfairly treated January 6th hostages," the announcer tells the audience as the MAGA faithful are conditioned to honor those who attempted his coup the same way Adolph Hitler had his loyalists honor those who waged his failed coup in 1923 known as the Beer Hall Putsch.
And just this past weekend at a rally, Trump increased his praise for the Jan 6 attackers, now describing them this way, “Those J6 warriors — they were warriors.” Trump understands that the word “warrior” is for those who wage war and violence for a cause. He is now telling his supporters he wants “warriors” and if they do wage war for him, if he wins, he will pardon them.
The really big difference between all of Donald Trump’s trials and the trial of Hunter Biden is the security needed for juries, judges, prosecutors, and witnesses. Jury orientation for the recent civil trial in Manhattan included an admonition for panel members warning them against ever admitting to hearing this case. Jurors who felt inclined to do so after the Hunter Biden verdict felt free to give media interviews and in at least one instance be identified on air.
The saying that every Republican accusation is a projection gets proven every day.
How about the Trump crime family? Eight of his top level political associates have done or are about to do prison time. Eighteen of his advocates have been indicted for crimes related to election subversion in both Georgia and Arizona. There are more, but the really scary thing is that I can find no listing of those who were charged that claims to be complete.
I’ve included many links in this story to back up my claims. I also want to say I’ve heard all the conspiracy theories about Biden and Democrats. I just don’t see any proof.
Now that Dark Money news sites (1,265-overwhelmingly right wing) outnumber real news sites (1,213 -counted in 2023) you’d think that any news of that sort about Democrats would have oozed over into the mainstream press. It hasn’t. Instead we’ve seen national distribution of an altered video of the President attempting to sit down at an event in France.
The San Diego Dark Money fake news site is East San Diego News (dot) com. The local GOP’s news site (not Dark Money) is at least not trying to fool anybody, most of the time.
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Note: I have completed another trip around the sun - Hey, Hey! I’ve made it to 74 today. Here’s to being old, but not (too) cranky.
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Wednesday News to Peruse
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'Break their necks at the end of a rope': Alex Jones threatens people who 'lied to Trump' via Raw Story
"It needs to be dealt with," he explained. "The criminal gang leaders, the big heads of the central banks, Pfizer head, Fauci, all of them that lied to Trump, we know, created the disinfo, already had the vaccine ready years before they released the virus."
"They all need to go to prison for the rest of their lives," he continued. "It sounds sexy to say they need to be executed... You don't turn them into martyrs. You don't execute them."
Jones, however, fantasized about possible executions.
"It is the right thing to do that they be executed," he insisted. "And if the juries decide to hang them, I'm not a wimp. I will volunteer. I think it should be public. I will pull the lever."
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These Numbers Spell Trouble for the GOP by Jay Kuo
The race for Ohio Congressional District 6 was supposed to be a blowout. After all, Trump won that district by over 29 percent in 2020. And Rep. Bill Johnson won it two years ago by 35 points.
That meant it was a reliably red district. And the Democratic challenger was a first-time, unknown candidate named Michael Kripchak, who quit his day job to run against GOP state senator, Michael Rulli. Kripchak is a veteran who spent only around $25K to Rulli’s $700,000, a nearly 30 to 1 cash advantage for the Republican.
In the end, however, Rulli won by only around 8.5 points. That’s a 20 point swing toward the Democrats since 2020, and a 26 point swing since 2022. Importantly, every county moved toward the Democrats.
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All Charter District Opens Public School by Thomas Ultican
New Orleans Public Schools, aka Orleans Parish School District (OPSD), became America’s first and only all charter school district in 2017. After hurricane Katrina, the state took over all but five schools in the city. When management was transferred to charter organizations in 2017, OPSD officially became an all charter district. This August, the city will open district-operated Leah Chase K-8 School, ending the all charter legacy.
According to Superintendent Avis Williams, the infrastructure required for the district to run Leah Chase will make it easier to open future district-run schools. OPSD will become both a charter school authorizer and regular school district. There is hope that New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA) is pulling out of an abyss and tending towards a healthy public school system.
Senator Joseph Bouie Jr. equated the NOLA school system to the “Tuskegee syphilis experiment.” Professor Bouie, former administrator of Southern University at New Orleans, had good reason for this analogy. At Tuskegee University, black men with syphilis were given no treatment even after penicillin was shown to be effective. Dozens of men died and their wives, children and untold number of others were infected. NOLA black residents had their community schools taken away and replaced by privatized schools, often miles away. This “experiment” stole their rights and bestowed the public schools to private actors.
