Letter to the Editor
Dear Editor:
I don't know much about a lot of things, but I do know a little about crime.
Recently, it was reported by the FBI and politicians that the crime rate nationwide was down. (These are Part 1 crimes - Murder, Rape, Robbery, Assaults, Burglary, and Felony Theft.) Well, I don't buy it.
Several factors affect the crime rate, and politicians are especially interested in them. Politicians want people to think their city or state has a low crime rate, hoping people will want to move there and think it is a safe place to live.
Colleges and universities underreport crimes on their campuses so that parents will think they are sending their children to a 'safe' college. This is not uncommon.
In the last several years of the 'defund the police movement,' cities have cut police manpower and diverted the money to fund social workers to go 'talk' to people who report supposedly 'minor' crimes. Those minor crimes often turn out to be felony crimes, but now are not reported as such by social workers. So this 'underreporting' lowers crime rates.
Next, we find that states reclassify crimes.
For instance, California recently reclassified property theft under $950 as a misdemeanor. Thefts and property crimes make up by far the most significant number of crimes, so California just lowered its crime rate a bunch. Other states do the same thing. Large liberal, sanctuary cities also report fewer crimes.
Thirdly, crimes often go unreported by people who feel that 'nothing' will happen to the criminal. They also fear reprisals if there are no cash bonds for arrested people. They know that the criminal will be out of jail quickly, and he might come to visit them. They don't want to get beat up or killed by the criminal, so they will not report it in the first place.
We all know that the open border has allowed thousands of criminals from other countries' prisons to be dumped into the U. S. Venezuela has virtually emptied its prisons.
In my experience, career criminals do not reform; they just keep committing crimes until they are caught again. Police know it is just the old revolving door.
Dave Denton
Stockton
