Should we be worried about the increase in violent crime?

[Pipeline 1010]

Those are some big increases in the number of murders.

I guess we need to redouble our efforts and attack the problem by flooding police departments with money and equipment as well as provide them with additional legal protections. Nothing is paramount to our safety.

LOL this was likely the response OP was fishing for. Along with "we also need to give police more immunity to beat/hurt/kill suspects and no longer second guess their brutal actions."

 

[Pipeline 1010]

1990?

Why discount the last 25 years?

All of the drug laws and prohibition are still in effect. Yet you choose a graph that ends at the high point 25 years ago?

From the post by Venix the 2013 murder rate was 4.5. Over the last 25 years we have entered a low like that of 1960 on your outdated graph.

Looks like the new drug laws are working, we need more.

That rate would be lower if not for the WoD. The drug laws are only working to incarcerate more of our population than any other nation in the world since the Soviet revolution. Which leads to a MORE violent population, not less.

 

[Venix]

Because MJ smokers and other innocents like the 7 year old girl caught up in botched SWAT raids don't count as homicides.

Aiyana Jones was killed while a SWAT team was apprehending a murder suspect. Her death was unrelated to drugs. SWAT and no-knock warrant misuse is a larger issue that would not be solved by ending the War on Drugs.

What do you think most gang violence is caused by? Fighting over turf, where they sell drugs.

"These estimates suggest that gang-related homicides typically accounted for around 13 percent of all homicides annually."

Even accepting that all of your assumptions are true--that most gang homicides are about drugs, that the War on Drugs is responsible for the existence of gangs, and that ending it would eliminate all gang violence--homicide rates would still not "drop like crazy" in the absence of drug prohibition.

That is why i said it is a complex issue. However, the rise of prohibition and the war on drugs correlates pretty close to a rise in homicide rates.

It's actually the opposite. Homicide rates began rising in the 60's and were already approaching their peak when the Controlled Substances Act was passed in 1970 and the War on Drugs declared in 1971. That chart is quite deceptive in labeling the entire increase with "New Drug Laws."

The War on Drugs has generally been an expensive failure, but it is not responsible for every single social ill imaginable.

 

[nickqt]

Worried about the dropping crime rate since the early 1990s?

 

[Victorian Gray]

Worried about the dropping crime rate since the early 1990s?

It certainly scares me.

Oh, wait, did you say dropping?

 

[soundforbjt]

Aiyana Jones was killed while a SWAT team was apprehending a murder suspect. Her death was unrelated to drugs. SWAT and no-knock warrant misuse is a larger issue that would not be solved by ending the War on Drugs.



"These estimates suggest that gang-related homicides typically accounted for around 13 percent of all homicides annually."

Even accepting that all of your assumptions are true--that most gang homicides are about drugs, that the War on Drugs is responsible for the existence of gangs, and that ending it would eliminate all gang violence--homicide rates would still not "drop like crazy" in the absence of drug prohibition.



It's actually the opposite. Homicide rates began rising in the 60's and were already approaching their peak when the Controlled Substances Act was passed in 1970 and the War on Drugs declared in 1971. That chart is quite deceptive in labeling the entire increase with "New Drug Laws."

The War on Drugs has generally been an expensive failure, but it is not responsible for every single social ill imaginable.

You keep saying homicides while the OP cites violent crime, not all violent crime is just homicides.

 

[IGBT]

No doubt..all those violent offenders are the DNC base / obama supporters. Liberals doing their best to keep the prisons and criminal lawyers in business.

 

[nickqt]

No doubt..all those violent offenders are the DNC base / obama supporters. Liberals doing their best to keep the prisons and criminal lawyers in business.

You're laughably stupid.