I just read a great post by Andy Kahan with statistics about violence and victimization in the United States.
Most notably, the statistics say that 4.6 million violent crimes occur each year in the United States. And that statistic apparently only includes the 47% of violent crimes that actually get reported to law enforcement.
Additionally, about 17,000 murders take place in the United States each year.
Financially speaking, violent crime costs victims about $1.4 billion per year and property crimes cost victims about $15.6 billion per year.
Politicians on the payroll of the military industry and the oil industry like to talk about terrorism because it helps them use taxpayer dollars to fund the industry. But these same politicians do little to stop the domestic plague of violent crime and victimization–which kills more Americans than international terrorism.
If you pay taxes and vote, then at least demand that your “representatives” do something to stop violent crime. But I personally doubt that the politicians will change much. So I think we all need to work together to find non-governmental ways to defend ourselves and to prevent violence and victimization.
What do you think?
