October 25, 2004
A FAILED STATE (via Robert Schwartz):
FBI: Violent Crime Off 3 Percent in 2003 (CURT ANDERSON, 10/25/04, Associated Press)
Violent crime fell last year, with only a slight uptick in murders marring the overall trend of fewer crimes across the country, the FBI (news - web sites) said Monday in its annual crime report.There were just under 1.4 million crimes of murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery and aggravated assault in 2003, 3 percent fewer than 2002 and a decline of more than 25 percent from 1994.
The 2003 figure translates to a rate of 475 violent crimes for every 100,000 Americans, a 3.9 percent decrease from the previous year, the FBI report said. Aggravated assaults, which make up two-thirds of all violent crimes, have dropped for 10 straight years.
Murder was the only violent crime that increased in 2003, with the 16,503 slayings reported by police to the FBI representing a 1.7 percent hike from the year before. Nearly eight in 10 murder victims last year were male and 90 percent were adults.
Note that these numbers represent improvements, yet Islamophobes consider the Muslim world uniquely depraved and Iraq's violence to speak to its capacity for self-governance. Posted by Orrin Judd at October 25, 2004 8:36 PM
What do you know? You actually fight crime, and crime goes down. Hmmm...
Posted by: Vince at October 25, 2004 9:22 PMOJ,
Islam is the only religion in the world right now which encourages its adherents to murder those of other faiths. That is a pretty significant difference.
Posted by: Bart at October 25, 2004 9:59 PMActually my take was that the WoT casualties were not large in comparison.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at October 25, 2004 10:17 PM16,503 slayings
Didn't that used to be the annual tally in NYC alone?
Posted by: Eugene S. at October 25, 2004 10:43 PMBart:
We Christians have killed one hell of a lot more Muslims the last couple years than vice versa.
Posted by: oj at October 25, 2004 11:24 PMThe Muslim world isn't uniquely depraved, but it's depraved nonetheless.
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at October 26, 2004 5:04 AMoj:
Because they lack the means, not because they lack the desire.
Look at Israel, and how many times they've been attacked by the pitiful and ridiculous Arab "militaries". If those armies had been even third-rate, we'd have to add about four million people to the "killed by Muslims" side of the ledger.
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at October 26, 2004 5:09 AMMichael:
Yes, well, we did seize Arab land and give it to Israel. Hard to fault their anger.
Posted by: oj at October 26, 2004 7:30 AMSeizing "Arab land" is sort of like seizing "Indian Land."
Posted by: Lou Gots at October 26, 2004 8:29 AMYes, no one blames them for Little Big Horn. Fiughting over land is an honorable and time-tested tradition.
Posted by: oj at October 26, 2004 8:36 AMMy point being that the Lenni Lenape should not be waiting too intently for me to deed my house over to them.
Posted by: Lou Gots at October 26, 2004 11:40 AM