Monday, July 22, 2013

"THE NATIONAL POLITICS OF CRIMES IN AMERICA"

Almost every national issue in America today is coated in racial flavors, divisive, politicized and saturated with the politics of the liberals and the conservatives. The black crime as they call it or the crimes that are committed by the African-Americans have also joined the long list of the major issues in America today that our politicians are using for their politics in order to gain the much needed political advantage. Crime, no matter the coloration we give it will not change the basic fact that it is a citizen of every human society in the world. There is no country that is 100% crime-free in the entire human universe today. Crime is human and humans perpetrate crimes. The reality about crimes in America today that the news media do not report accurately and adequately or our politicians turn this into politics is the fact that most of the crimes that take place are generally localized in nature or neighborhood-based. Criminals prefer to operate in the neighborhoods or communities where they live and know very well. They consider those communities their our best safe havens to do their crimes as well as to cover up their dirty or evil tracks.

In the United States, two different types of crimes are generally committed by all these criminals with their identities cutting across the racial lines or divisions in America. The violent crimes and the property crimes are occurring every now and then in the 50 states of the United States on daily basis. The incarceration of convicted criminals is the main form of legal punishment for most crimes in America. The United States also has one of the highest documented rate of prison incarcerations in the world based on the Walmsley, Roy (2009) report that was titled "World Prison Population List." The report said that 743 adults per 100,000 are in prisons in America for violent and property crimes. The U.S. Bureau for Justice Statistics (BJS) also reported that 2,266,800 adults were incarcerated in the U.S. federal and state prisons as well as in the county jails at the end of 2011 or about 0.7% of all the adult population in the United States. The data also revealed that 4,814,200 adults were on probation or parole for the same year 2011. In total, about 7 million adults were under correctional supervision in 2011 or 2.9% of the American adults.

On the subject of race on race crimes, about 94% of the reported black crimes were committed by the blacks on the blacks and 86% of the reported white crimes were committed by the whites on the whites. These data show clearly that crimes in America reside in our neighborhoods and communities that are still heavily segregated along racial lines despite the civil rights law that ended all forms of public discrimination and racial segregation in America since 1965. Crime in America today is a national epidemic that knows no race or racial neighborhoods. Politicians should stop playing politics with the subject of crime in America that requires all hands on deck to address. The more we continue to play politics with issue of crimes in America, the more difficult and divisive will the practical solutions be in all reality. Crimes have reached a troubling level in America today. The solutions to crimes in America in 2013 will require the full cooperation and the 100% joint effort of all our public elected officials at the local, state and federal levels, who will be ready to put away their politics of the right and of the left that has both remained the biggest political obstacles in addressing this national issue.     

No comments:

Post a Comment