What Civil Liberties Are You Ready To Give Up To Feel Safe?

I wrote an article in February 2012 positing crime is not at an all-time high, and I backed it up with statistics.

U.S. Crime Rates 1960-2010: The Facts Might Surprise You


The purpose of that article, the charts, and the statistics was not to say we are the safest we have ever been. The purpose was to illustrate that crime trends are going in the opposite direction of public perception. Ask the average American their thoughts on crime now compared to the past, and most will tell you crime is at an all-time high, but this is simply untrue, and I believe the gap between reality and perception has major implications for what civil liberties people are willing to give up to feel safe.

The importance of this misaligned perception cannot be overstated. The impression that crime is out of control is what allows the Department of Homeland Security to arm local police forces as if they are preparing to invade a foreign country. This notion that we must be tough on crime, and there can be no nuanced approach to combating crime, contributes to a shoot first mentality, ending in the death of unarmed citizens, like the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

Yes, we are not as safe as we were in the 1960s, but we are much safer than we were in the 1980s and the early 90s. Cable news and the local news mentality of “if it bleeds it leads” is a contributing factor, but to what degree I am unable to say. The question is, do you still believe crime is worse than it has ever been? And if you believe this, why do you reject the statistics that say otherwise? And what civil liberties are you ready to give up to feel safe?

Human Interest

#civil liberties#crime#crime rate#crime statistics#murder#safe#safer