“It is my belief, Watson, founded on my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside” (Sherlock Holmes).
In his book, The Least of Us (2021), Sam Quinones details how two drugs, meth and fentanyl, have supercharged crime and homelessness, making America a much more dangerous place.
Failure to control our border, human trafficking (AMU Edge, J Sadulski 12/21/20)and zero bond is spreading crime to our scenic countryside now. Bloomberg reported last year that NYC was safer than rural America (6/7/22).
Always late to the discussion, Joe Biden now says “not to defund the police.” Something has to change if the FBI estimate is accurate, there were more murders in the US in 2021 than any year since 1994 (VOX, Jeff Asher 10/6/22). And police officers are leaving in droves (USA Today, J Brown 12/21/22).
Over the last two weeks, at lest 19 were killed and others wounded in six mass shootings in progressive California - a state with more than 100 gun laws (NYTimes, S Hubler 1/29/23). Unfortunately progressives will blame guns, want more laws and to defund the police.
So what Americans need now are signs or an app warning us of these dangerous areas so as not to get murdered in a progressive ruled society.
Ralph Miller
* * *
I won’t dispute that America is more dangerous place from years or decades past. But Mr. Miller conveniently fails to point out murders occur for the same reasons in the states that are not “progressive ruled” states.
Thirty-three states are ruled by Republican control of at least the State Senate and State House. The governorship is also controlled in 22 of those 33 states. So why is he only concerned about murder in only one third of the states, leaving Republicans blameless in the remaining two thirds? Or are “progressive ruled societies” at the city level?
Mr. Miller offers a supposition that gun violence in “progressive ruled societies” is an additional, significant cause of murder, and implicitly less likely a cause of murder in Republican states. What supports his thesis that the more dangerous areas are those in a “progressive ruled society”? The last sentence of his letter implies that the only dangerous areas are those in a “progressive ruled society”. Not once did he define “progressive ruled societies”. Could it be that statistics might show that areas in “non-progressive societies” are equally as dangerous?
His thesis is based only upon mass shootings in California, coupled with (1) his typical and largely unfounded criticisms of President Biden, in this instance “Always late to the discussion . . .” and (2) “progressives will blame guns, want more laws and to defund the police.”
An easily downloadable spreadsheet, sortable by people injured or killed, state, and date is available from the gun violence website.
Mr. Miller should have done some more research. He would have learned from this source that of the January shootings that injured or killed five or more people, the next highest number of shootings after California occurred in the presumably “non-Progressive” states of Florida (six shootings, four dead, 46 injured), Louisiana (four shootings, three dead, 27 injured), Texas (four shootings, seven dead, 13 injured), North Carolina (three shootings, six dead, 11 injured) and Utah (one shooting, eight dead, no injured.) Republicans control the governorship and both State Houses (where laws originate) in each of these states, except for governorships in Louisiana and North Carolina.
Illinois is a “progressive ruled state”; but there were only two shootings in January, totaling five dead and five injured. In Ohio, a “non-progressive ruled state”, the statistics were identical to Illinois.
Regarding President Biden, he was not “late to the party”. A Google search term “did President Biden say not to defund the police” revealed that as of June 8, 2020 and later, Candidate and President Biden never called for defunding the police.
A similar search, this time “did President Biden say to defund the police” confirmed the same, that Candidate and President Biden never called for defunding the police.
I expect someone to reply to me with the problem of “black on black crime”. Yes, that is a problem. I suspect many cities with large black populations have enacted stricter gun ownership requirements. So why don’t the legislatures of those states (an example is Houston, Texas) join forces with those cities to reduce gun violence, rather than making it “easier for people to defend themselves”?
Joe Warren