Andrew Maykuth recently wrote about violent crime in Philadelphia. I include an excerpt:
Philadelphia had the highest murder rate among the nation’s 10 largest cities last year, and violent crime and property crime grew at a rate that exceeded the national average, according to FBI statistics released yesterday.
Philadelphia’s 406 murders last year represented a 7.7 percent increase over 2005. The 10 largest cities recorded an increase of 6.9 percent and nationwide the rate increased 0.3 percent, according to the FBI’s preliminary uniform crime report.
Among the top 10 cities, Philadelphia reported the highest violent-crime rate last year, up 5.9 percent. Nationwide, violent crime increased 1.3 percent last year over 2005, according to the FBI’s annual survey of 11,723 law enforcement agencies. Violent crime includes murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.
I find myself frustrated by statistics such as these. Some places in the United States have murder rates worse than those in war-torn Iraq. The powers that be have so much money to waste on needless oil wars overseas, but refuse to stop the violence at home.
Personally, I say we stop paying taxes to this negligent government, corrupted by influence from mega-corporations and special interests. Let’s instead use our money and our resources to create non-governmental organizations that address our needs, namely the need to protect ourselves from violent victimization, such as murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.
What do you think?
