US crime figures: Why the drop? the BBC asks. Excellent question! And the answer is . . . black teens are trying harder to participate in society (legally) now that they have a black president. While Washington correspondent Tom Geoghegan’s number one reason for America’s declining crime rate is littered with caveats and attributed to “top” criminologist Alfred Blumstein, there it is. The Obama Effect. But wait! There’s more!
Number two on the Beeb’s/Blumstein’s hit parade: the “fall in demand for crack.” ‘Cause meth addicts don’t commit crime, I suppose. Then there’s smarter policing, number crunching, the availability of legal abortion, more prisoners, the decline in childhood exposure to leaded gasoline, an aging population, the rise of videogame and the proliferation of camera phones.
I know the Brits have banned self-defense firearms, but I assume Mr Geoghegan knows such things exist. After all, he’s based in Washington, D.C. where private citizens are free to carry . . . oh wait.
OK, well, I guess the U.K. government employee never heard of John Lott’s stat-laden tome More Guns, Less Crime. If he had, surely he would have added firearms to his list of crime reduction agents. And yes, I’m calling him Shirley. Shirley U. Jest.