The Buffalo blame game

We talk a great deal about crime in Chicago, because it is a big, dangerous city, and it is one of the five U.S. cities that the national media ordinarily pay attention to. Buffalo is a smaller, more dangerous city, with a homicide rate just slightly above Chicago’s: 18.38 per 100,000 vs. 18.26 per 100,000.

Advertisement

The vast majority of murders in these United States are no surprise at all — we know with actuarial precision who is going to do the killing, who is going to do the dying, when the crimes are going to be committed, etc. We even know what policies would likely be effective in preventing these crimes — for example, enforcing the gun laws at the state and federal level, particularly the straw-buyer laws — but we don’t do that, because that would be hard work and take up a lot of resources that could be used for more important things, like paying cops to eat Doritos and shoot Jim Beam on the taxpayers’ time and dime, paying cops to impersonate garage doors, paying Philadelphia homicide detectives in excess of $300,000 a year, and buying armored attack trucks to patrol the mean streets of Norman, Okla.

There is much that could be done, if anyone were willing to do it.

Here’s something I am not willing to do: I am not willing to renegotiate the Bill of Rights every time some sexually frustrated loser with a 5.56mm death-boner has a homicidal temper tantrum.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Trending on HotAir Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement