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ThePolitic.com (2 unread)

Reported Crime Versus Unreported Crime

Posted: August 27th, 2008, 12:04pm MST by Shane Edwards

Tags: Justice amp Legal [edit]

More stupid stats from BC:

Crime in BC hits 30 year low

At least they kind of realize this may be misleading:

But these numbers don’t necessarily mean less crime is being committed in the province or that police are cracking down more effectively.

What it means is more crime is going unreported. Someone got into my car the other night. We came out in the morning and found the door to the car open and the glove box open. Admittedly the door was not locked in the first place, but the car was parked in our driveway and it was our car. It’s a crime regardless. But we didn’t report it. Why? Because we knew the cops wouldn’t do a thing. In many other instances I personally have encountered, the police no longer go to what they call “minor” break-ins. No checking for fingerprints, no searching for evidence. Unless you actually see the guy running away or catch him in the act, they ain’t coming.

How many crimes are occurring that people just don’t bother to report to the cops because the value of the goods is less than their insurance anyway, so they’ll just have to pay for it out of pocket? It’s just a bunch of hassle to report crimes that don’t get followed up or help to deal with your loss.

All I know is growing up, my family was not subject to nearly as many crimes as they are now. In the past ten years I personally have been the victim of theft 5 times. In the twenty years prior to that I had been the victim twice. Is it because I have more stuff to steal? I don’t think so. I am thinking of my whole house - in other words, my parents’ and brother and sister’s stuff too.

Is this anyone else’s experience? I’d like to see statistics from surveying people as to the frequency of the average person being a victim of a crime, reported or unreported. Is that trending up or down? Let’s compare official “crime rates” to official victim of crime rates. What is the rate of reported crime per capita versus the number of victims of crime per capita?
British Columbia: Still Doesn’t Know What “Change” Means

Posted: August 27th, 2008, 9:35am MST by Shane Edwards

Tags: Elections amp Campaigns [edit]

The latest polls in BC on provincial politics are for the first time in years, showing the NDP ahead of the Liberals. The Vancouver Sun says this means British Columbians want change:

The survey, which comes on the heels of an internal NDP survey conducted in July showing a neck-and-neck race between parties, also reflects a strong public appetite for change, with 58 per cent of respondents saying it’s time for a new political party to be in power.

I am sorry. Letting the NDP back into power is not change. It is recession. In both senses: economically and historically. Change would be letting the Greens or one of the fragmented pieces of the provincial conservatives in. Not returning the NDP to power.

For New Democrats, the numbers were heralded as a sign the party and its leader, Carole James, are on the right path ahead of the May election.

If that is the case, this citizen of BC has been completely unaware that the NDP have articulated anything like a “path” heading into the election next year.

In fact, the only position I have heard the NDP take on anything in the last year has been their “Axe the Gas Tax” campaign, a blatantly populist appeal that has less than zero to do with their own base than it has to do with stirring up the Liberal base to mobilize against Campbell.

The fact is the NDP are only mad that they weren’t the ones who got to implement the Carbon Tax, which is very appealing to green voters and socialist voters alike.

So what is their position on anything? Well, they don’t like… the Liberals. And wish we wouldn’t vote for them.

Yeah, there’s a winning position.

But for some reason the writer of the piece insists on framing the NDP as having a position:

“The NDP message may be resonating, but it’s not going to be enough to propel her into government unless she can change the minds of those who haven’t decided,” he said.

Again, what message? That bureaucrats don’t deserve a pay raise? Is that what the NDP are campaigning on? That 76% of British Columbians are jealous that some government workers got a pay raise?

I hate to say the words “Liberal” and “effective government” in the same sentence, but compared to the glory years under the NDP, they really have been.

I don’t recall the last labour dispute we had - I know there have been some, but not nearly as many as under the NDP, who the unions knew would cave into every single one of their demands sooner or later.

Business is booming. The oil sector is doing great and the mining sector is actually becoming part of the economy in the province again - once the lifeblood of this mountainous resource-rich region, it had been driven to the brink of extinction under the NDP. The Forest industry is struggling, but largely because of the real estate market collapsing in the USA, BC’s single biggest lumber buyer.

Things are getting done: bridges, underpasses, transit, highways… things that had been utterly neglected from lack of political will under the NDP are actually being accomplished. Yes, some of that impetus came from the Olympics coming, but a lot didn’t. Have you driven the Kicking Horse Pass lately? Amazing.

Yeah I think the carbon tax is a joke, and there are other positions they have taken that I have not been in favour of, but overall, they haven’t been too bad and certainly a vast improvement over the NDP.
translation: “Please! No federal election!”

Posted: August 27th, 2008, 4:32am MST by Charles Anthony

Tags: Elections amp Campaigns [edit]

Stephane Dion’s statements yesterday sound like he is afraid of an election call or at least before the up-coming by-election. If the Liberals (or any of the opposition parties) wanted an election, they would say so.

The opposition parties understand the threat. If they stymie legislation, they will get an election. I would suggest that the Conservatives just continue to govern.
Plot to assassinate Obama in Denver foiled

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 7:59pm MST by Charles Anthony

Tags: General [edit]

A plot to assassinate Obama in Denver has been foiled by police:

One of the suspects told police they were “going to shoot Obama from a high vantage point using a … rifle … sighted at 750 yards,” Denver television station CDS4 is reporting. Police have told the television station that one of the suspects “was directly asked if they had come to Denver to kill Obama. He responded in the affirmative.”

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