Taking Aim

Trey Smith

If you turn on the local news in the US on almost any day of the week, what is likely to be the lead story? If you live near a large urban area, the lead story is likely to be of some sort of shooting. In less populated areas, the lead story might not include a shooting, but it's still likely to be about some form of crime. Reports of crime seem to be the bread-and-butter of local news departments.

Because it is reported on in such a meticulous manner, I bet that most folks believe that the crime rate is high in terms of recent history. What else would the average person surmise since the reporting of crime is so ubiquitous?

But here's some interesting information. Since 1992, national crimes rates for all major categories have steadily and consistently dropped. For example, in 1992, the rate of murder per 100,000 inhabitants was 9.3. In 2010, the rate was 4.8 or close to 50% less. In 1992, the vehicle theft rate was 631.5, but by 2010, it had fallen to 238.8. For one more example, the 1992 rate for robbery was 263.6, yet in 2010 it is only 119.1.

I share this information because, since 9/11, domestic police forces have become ever more militarized. It's not uncommon these days for the local police department to have a SWAT team, one or more tank-like vehicles, night vision goggles, stun grenades, tasers, sophisticated weaponry and, maybe, a drone or two. The police seem poised to arm themselves to teeth while the overall threat to civil society is in decline.

(It might be suggested that this militarization process is the primary reason that crime rates have decreased. I might buy that argument IF crime rates hadn't been falling already BEFORE 9/11. Since the rate of decline has been fairly steady since 1992, what accounts for the nearly 10 years before the tragedy of 9/11?)

Not only are police departments arming themselves with as many high-tech weapons as they can get their hands on, but, as Dave Lindoff reports,

...we learned that the Department of Homeland Security, a super-agency established by Congress and the Bush-Cheney administration in the wake of the 9-11 attacks, had ordered 450 million rounds of .40 caliber hollow-point ammo, which will reportedly be used at a rate of 90 million shells a year over the five-year life of the contract. (That represents one bullet for every American citizen over the course of the next four years!)

Both Lindorff's article and this entry in Wikipedia will tell you that these kinds of projectiles cause far more damage to soft tissue than do other types of bullets. Put differently, they tend to be deadly!

With violent crime down, why do local police forces NEED more lethal weapons and bullets? Who are they really taking aim at?

My worry is that, anytime you throw high-tech gadgetry at a profession, the workers will invent creative ways to utilize the gadgetry as much as possible. In a manner of speaking, it's like a child with a new toy, but, in this case, the new "toys" are lethal!