How about a little good news? - NOVA this week (December 4, 2015)

Observations from my weekly wanderings, usually in Northern Virginia (NOVA).

Do you know you are less likely to be the victim of a violent crime in the USA today than a decade ago? Or two decades?

MUCH less likely!

Do you know that the rate of violent crime in the USA has been in a steady decline for decades?

Doesn’t sound right does it? You probably don’t feel safer do you? Here’s the evidence:

FBI Crime Data

Although I don’t have the data anymore, the trend continues if you go further back.

The point is, things may not be as bad as you think. On the macro scale, violent crime is in a long steady decline.

It just doesn’t feel that way.

Why? There are numerous reasons, most of which I am not qualified to discuss. There are two reasons that come to my mind though: mass media and political opportunists.

I’m not saying mass media is bad. Most of us just don’t know how to put things like mass murder into perspective, especially when it is streamed near real-time into your home. So, I thought perhaps seeing the data might help.

But I am saying political opportunism is bad – in fact I hate it. There are politicians on both side of the fence who use tragedy – to intentionally make you feel afraid – to advance their agenda. They are villains.

Don’t be deceived.

Of course, there will be skeptics who don’t believe the FBI data. Sorry, I can’t help you. Live in despair.

I am in a related field, and I work with people from the bureau every week; I know one intimately. They’re good people.

I don’t mean to imply for one second that everything is perfectly peachy in the Good Ole USA, and I especially don’t mean to diminish any individual tragedy. I knew someone personally who was murdered years ago in one of the mass killings that became a national story. It was terrible, and that’s a ludicrous understatement. If you’ve been affected by violent crime, national story or not, you know what I’m talking about.

But I’m not going to bury my head in the sand.

Struggling with a way to wrap this up. Ends up feeling a little preachy, and I really wanted to give a little hope.

Hey, remember the data (from the hyperlink), that shows violent crime in a steady decline. Has it hit you to wonder yet, huh….why’s IS IT…on the downturn?

Maybe thank a cop.

(No…I’m not a cop.)