Quote of the Day
Tracking crime statistics – and more importantly, whether or not crime is rising or falling in the United States – is getting harder to do. That’s because nearly a third of America’s cities are no longer reporting crime statistics to the FBI.
This is more than just a problem for policymakers looking for data to address the cities most in need of assistance. It also means that some policymakers are demanding bad policy because they’re relying on incomplete data.
The Marshall Project reported that 31 percent of the 18,000 law enforcement agencies across the U.S. failed to report crime data to the FBI’s national database after transitioning to a new data collection system, according to the latest statistics from the FBI. That’s a slight improvement from 2021, when 40 percent of law enforcement agencies didn’t report crime data. Still, it’s a glaring blind spot, especially when that data is missing from some of the largest metro areas dealing with rampant, out-of-control crime.
Many of those cities also happen to be led by the loudest voices calling for gun control, defunding police and soft-on-crime policies. The trifecta means that gun control politicians are missing a third of the crime picture yet demanding 100 percent of the gun control. Typical behavior for zealots who favor government control over individual freedom.
Salam Fatohi
August 10, 2023
AMERICA HAS A CRIME REPORTING PROBLEM
This is concerning. Facts, such as these statistics, are important to us. They are probably not as important as the constitutional protections but they are important. They are unimportant to the antifreedom people unless the facts are in their favor. By failing to report the facts in the cities with the most gun control they can use them to their advantage.
Since the facts are being manipulated, we can hammer them with the fact they are manipulating the facts. Also, it may be we need to rely less on the facts and just hammer them with the legal protections of firearms owners.
“The Marshall Project reported that 31 percent of the 18,000 law enforcement agencies across the U.S. failed to report crime data to the FBI’s national database after transitioning to a new data collection system.”
Not that reporting wasn’t always one of those chores that gets pushed to the bottom of the list. My wife retired out after over 20 years as a police secretary for that very system change. “I’m not going through that crap, again.”
“Transitioning”, to a new computer system was going to guarantee poor performance. And “packing the stats”, is a national pass time for many a department no matter the size of the political subdivision. So, it was going to be problem no matter what.
Regardless, 2A doesn’t concern itself with statistical anything. Nor should statistics in crime and criminal behavior be a concern to it.
It’s a restriction on the power of politicians. And the fact that politicians would want to change that argument to one of crime only proves its intended effect.
“Shall not be infringed”, is the touchstone that shows politicians to be the criminals they truly are.
Now, if I only live long enough to hear a prosecutor tell a politician on the stand. “So, your saying ignorance of the law is an excuse now?”
“31 percent of the 18,000 law enforcement agencies across the U.S. failed to report crime data to the FBI’s national database after transitioning to a new data collection system”
I’d bet Hanlon’s Razor applies here, and that this is what we see everywhere when underfunded/incompetent people are asked to create large information systems. It seems too much like confirmation bias to assume they did it on purpose. I mean, sure, maybe they did, but I see no data presented that supports that argument.
The law enforcement groups with high crime rates benefit more from no reporting (and have a high workload to do that reporting) than those with low crime rates. My hypothesis is that this creates a bias in the nonreporting of high crime rate groups.
The gov’t and its agencies are manipulating ALL the stats in various ways. Crime stats are one of them.
The official inflation rate? Total BS, it is off by at least 2x, maybe 3.5x.
Birth and mortality stats (counting bodies can’t be that hard, right)? Just wrote a blog post about them https://www.thestarscameback.com/2023/08/12/cdc-stats-not-believable/
Vaccine safety and efficacy data? Fraudulent. https://www.bitchute.com/video/GEY8CZXx7PLF/
Climate stats? http://www.wattsupwiththat.com has documented that a lot over the years.
The whole GDP calculation is a fiction to provide CYA for the Official Narrative on policy ™. Our industrial base has beet totally gutted, we are no longer an industrial power on anything like the same scale as the 1950s. For example, our ship-building capacity is only 0.05% of world tonnage produced; we are not even in the top 15, yet we are supposedly a world naval power even though we would be totally unable to quickly replace any losses we took in war.
Etc., etc., it’s all BS numbers and financialized slight of hand.
Why report statistics to the FBI? Who believes anything the FBI publishes anyway? How can you keep statistics on crime when all trust in authority has been completely undermined?
Our freedoms, liberties, and rights, are inalienable because they are the product of simple reason and logic upon truth. While truth can be hard to be sure of, lies are far easier, as they always eventuallycontradict themselves, and it is the one objective measure of truth that it does *not* contradict itself.
The FBI are hypocrites. They lie. They barely hide this fact any longer.
would this not be in our favor somewhat if the cities not reporting appear to be crime ridden shit holes?
I don’t understand how this would be in our favor. We can’t point to crime rates statistics support our claim that 2nd Amendment infringements are positively correlated with high crime rates.
To the leftists facts are not actually facts. They are just things….things to be used, abused and contorted to serve their agenda.
“The Marshall Project reported that 31 percent of the 18,000 law enforcement agencies across the U.S. failed to report crime data to the FBI’s national database after transitioning to a new data collection system.”
That’s a “gotcha” headline intended to capture potential readers, or at least set the tone for an article that leads to assumptions on the part of potential readers. I didn’t go through the report in detail, but I’ll assume that it’s an accurate number that’s verifiable. What it doesn’t say is “what percentage of the 69% of the 18,000 agencies who did report provided data that is accurate?”
69% of a 180-pound man’s body is 124.2 pounds; would anyone trust a doctor who admitted to performing a checkup in which 56 pounds of the body’s mass was not checked? ” Your stomach, arms and feet are fine, but I didn’t look at your heart, liver or lungs. And, I cannot confirm if the blood work lab results are accurate. Have a nice day.”
There is a difference between incompetence and deliberate malfeasance, but it’s not much of a difference in the final result. I have no doubt the anti-gun forces will proclaim the necessity of additional restrictions based on the 69% reporting and never be called on the 31% who are not. No responsible business owner, or manager, would base major business decisions, or even minor ones, on performance data with a 31% hole in it. In a 7-day week each day comprises 14.3% of the total; “we have sales and profit data for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday and part of Saturday, but nothing for Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday before noon, and we have no idea how complete or accurate what data we have actually is, but it looks pretty good, so let’s build 5 more stores.”
Problem is, it’s not business, it’s politics and there’s no accountability, and certainly no bankruptcy potential to eventually enforce a diversion from reality.
If the report failures were randomly distributed the results would still be useful data. We would call it a sample and proceed accordingly. But if the sample has a bias, then the data probably* becomes garage.
* If the bias is well known it may be possible to correct for the bias.
Left wing s**thole cities not reporting crime statistics is just like Red China no longer reporting its crazy high youth unemployment numbers (20%, according to the last one they did publish, and quite possibly the real number is higher still than this “official” number).