I have been sitting on this one for about three weeks, but given the developments of today, I think the gestation period has gone on long enough.
Under the previous presidential administration, unemployment in this country was horrendous. We were dealing with a president that had no idea how to fix it, turns things around or even put a Band-Aid on it. Eventually, the mantra became "Well...those jobs are gone and they aren't coming back!"
But still...there had to be something they could do to make the numbers look more favorable to those that gave up on the problem. So they cooked the books---saying that thousands of people who had lost their jobs had just thrown in the towel and stopped looking for work. So we just no longer counted those folk towards the unemployment numbers.
The bottom line? It still didn't work. Beccause the numbers still sucked.
Based upon statistics from the FBI for 2002-2016 in seven of the eight statistical categories they measure for major crime (murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglaries, thefts, auto thefts and arson) our city showed marked improvement and the overall crime index went from 633.6 to 508.5 per hundred thousands residents.
Rape, the only category that was worse in 2016 that it was in 2002, was kind of a anomaly. It was higher (63.9 to 70.9) from the ying and yang of the statistical block. There were several high volume years in the mid-to-late 2000's that skewed the numbers.
But it still was bad. Not as bad as it used to be, but I know your game and what you're about. Schum -mo!
Compared to other towns in our area (with the exception of Alma--more about that later) Fort Smith is one of the most dangerous places to live based on reported numbers from the FBI in 2014-2015.
And where are we now. Well...we don't actually know. We hear about what a great job the current administration is doing fighting crime (mostly from the current administration) but I have to throw a penalty flag on that assertion.
Mainly because, just like in the ol' unemployment shell game that occurred from 2008 -2016, the numbers are being cooked. Myriad sources tell me that when you gut certain productive units of your department based on personal (not personnel) decisions and just stop looking for crimes to prosecute, the "numbers" are going to be favorable to those controlling and releasing the numbers.
A few weeks back, a website (Click HERE) released a list of the Ten Most Dangerous Cities in Arkansas for 2019. Fort Smith came in at #8 (three spots below Alma...but that's another story for another day). So of the sixty towns in Arkansas with a population of 3000 or better (based on the latest FBI statistics) we are the eighth most dangerous.
The website explained their tracking dynamics in determining the rankings:
"Every year the FBI release two crime datasets, a preliminary dataset limited to the biggest cities in the country, followed by a more detailed release at the end of the year.
For our analysis, we focused on the JUST released 2017 data, specifically the 2017 Crime In The United States Report. We will update the results when data becomes available in September 2019.
So what criteria did we use? Have a look:
Violent Crimes Per Capita
Property Crimes Per Capita
In order to make the analysis as apples to apples as possible, we only considered cities over 5,000 in population. That left us with 60 cities in Arkansas.
We then ranked each city from 1 to 60 for the two criteria with a #1 ranking being the most dangerous for the particular criteria.
Next, we averaged the two rankings into one “Dangerous Index”.
Finally, we ranked every city on the “Dangerous Index” with the lowest index being the most dangerous in Arkansas — Little Rock."
So there's good news and here'sbad news. It's safer to live in the Fort than it is in Little Rock, Osceola, Pine Bluff, West Memphis, Alma, Blytheville and Hope (which ain't saying much) but it's not as safe as living in freaking El Dorado or Hot Springs ....or forty other towns with a population of 3000 or more. (The town of Hope being on the list probably has something to do with the Clinton's...but I digress.)
And that's even with reported numbers that have been reheated more than turkey and dressing the week after Thanksgiving.
What are the mitigating factors, you might ask? Let me count the ways.
Well, the loss of almost 800 hours of police experience from people who have abandoned a sinking ship could be one. Maybe the aspects of promoting people to meet quotas and punishing those that refuse to kiss your ass figures in.
Promoting those that do your bidding--despite their spotty records and numerous complaints filed against them in the past--to facilitate easier access to the ass kissing might play a part. Basically doing away with entire units set up to battle...oh, I don't know...sex crimes against children and drugs ...would seem to be a road block.
Here's an idea. Let's hire them up for "diversity" and spend a ton of money training them so they can...oh, I don't know...go to work for Bentonville!
And from 2002-2014 when crime actually went down? A lot of those guys that were working the streets are now sitting at home or working other places after we trained them because ...well, you know.
What finally set me off to write this tome? I spent two and a half hours last night compiling "Warrant Watches" and released ten of them this morning. A reader contacted me and said "so-and-so is living at their mother's house in such and such town."
My response? "Call the police!"
The response from the police? "Hey...it's Sunday. Here's a quarter, call someone who cares!" (The only thing that surprises me about that is that a person so obviously in step with the administration is having to work on Sunday. Kiss a little harder and you'll get weekends off!)
Yeah. I said it. And I didn't stutter on nary a word.
I've said it once and I'll say it again....effective community policing my big fat ass....
