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Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
MIKEY SMITH: 10 unhinged Donald Trump moments - and why his crime stats are even more dodgy
Trump rolled out a statistic that is so outrageously dishonest it's unbelievable - and nobody has spotted it until now Donald Trump's last night announced plans to take over the police in Washington DC, and send in troops to fight crime. It was one of the most provocatively authoritarian moves by a US President since the post-911 era. Or at least since the Covid Pandemic. And it was all based on fudged figures. We'll go through some of those fudges and some of the immediate fallout. Meanwhile, Trump had a pop at Zelensky and made people translate TACO into Chinese. Oh, and Liz Truss is back, and more desperate than ever to seem relevant in the US. Here's everything that happened in Trump world in the last 24 hours that you need to know about. 1. Send in the Clowns. No, hang on - Troops. Send in the TROOPS. Donald Trump last night announced plans to "federalise" the Washington DC Police Department and deploy the National Guard, and maybe other members of the military, on the streets of the capital, to tackle a "crime emergency" and "rising violence" in the capital. Except that there is neither a crime emergency nor rising violence in the capital. There are two measures of violent crime in DC. One is by the Metropolitan Police department - which for some reason doesn't include aggravated offences or felony assaults, the other is by the FBI, which does - and which counts crimes differently. (MPDC is incident based - so one reported crime is one entry. The FBI pulls from the National Incident-Based Reporting System, which can mean an incident with multiple crimes can be recorded as just one crime.) The MPD's figures put violent crime down 26% year on year since 2024, building on the previous year which saw a 35% reduction year on year since 2023. That's a 30 year low. Even the FBI's method of counting shows a 10% reduction year on year 2023-2024 across all violent crimes. 2. Let's talk about Bogota Then Trump held up a bunch of graphs on paper that show DC's murder rate plotted against other capital cities from around the world. And on that graph, DC's 2024 murder rate (27.54 per 100,000) is shown as dramatically higher than other capital cities - including some surprising ones like Bogota, the capital of Colombia (15.1 per 100k) and Mexico City (10 per 100k). Note: The actual figure for Bogota is 15.2, according to the "Bogotá, Cómo Vamos" quality-of-life report. But we'll let that slide. For comparison, the national US murder rate is around 5 per 100k, the equivalent for Colombia is 25.4 per 100k, and for Mexico it's 24.9 per 100k. So why does Washington DC have such a dramatically higher murder rate than places like Bogota and Mexico City - and why is it so much higher than the US national average? Well, as with many things, it depends on how - and who - you count. Washington DC's murder rate is counted from the city of Washington DC only. The city itself is relatively small - with about 700,000 people. And the suburbs around it that make up the DC Metro area all have their own police forces, who publish their own crime stats. Bogota's numbers are for the whole metro area - 8m+ people - most of them living in areas where not a lot of murders happen. Same for Mexico City's figure, which is based on an area covering 22 million people. In 2024 there were more than 1,200 murders in Bogota - while there were just 187 in Washington DC. The murder rate in DC is higher because it only counts the inner city, where murders are more likely to happen. If you run the MPDC's numbers for DC, plus the suburbs of Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax County, Montgomery County, and Prince George's County - you get to a murder rate of 7.72 per 100,000. That's still a shade higher than the national average, but much lower than Trump's scaremongering would have you believe. And much lower than both Bogota and Mexico City. Here's what the graph should look like. 3. Don't take my word for it... CNN helpfully clipped together a bunch of people noting crime was down in DC. Including Kash Patel, literally during Trump's press conference. 4. DC's mayor kinda shrugs Mayor Muriel Bowser just doesn't have the kind of fight that we saw from local officials when Trump sent the troops to LA. In fairness, there's not a lot she can do. The law Trump is using is kind of legit. He's only supposed to use it to federalise the police for 48 hours at a time, up to a maximum of 30 days. But he's allowed to do it. She said Trump's action was "unsettling and unprecedented." But she also kinda suggested that if people were worried about him being able to do it, they shoulda made DC a state like they've been asking for for decades... 5. This is just the warm up... Trump hinted that DC wasn't the only city he had his eye on for a provocative, authoritarian takeover. Mentioning New York, Baltimore and Oakland as being "so far gone", he said: "this will go further. We'll starting very strongly with DC." If you think this isn't a dry run, you're dramatically underreacating. Or, as Tim Walz put it: 6. Alaska is Russia now Many people learned for the first time this week that for a handful of people in Russia, Alaska is contested territory. The great bear sold the state to the US in 1867, but people still joke about it being theirs really. Which is why it's pretty funny that Putin got Trump to agree to meet him there, because he can joke that it's home soil. Anyway, Trump made that joke even funnier last night by saying he was "going to Russia" to meet Putin. If Biden had done 7. It's what I do Trump reckons he'll know whether a "deal" can be made to end the war in Ukraine within "the first two minutes" of meeting Putin. Asked how he'll know that, he replied that that's just what he does. 8. He had another pop at Zelensky Trump had another pop at Volodymyr Zelensky, saying he was "a little bothered" by Ukraine's leader saying over the weekend that he needed constitutional approval to cede to Russia the territory that it captured in its unprovoked invasion. 'I mean, he's got approval to go into a war and kill everybody, but he needs approval to do a land swap?' Trump added. "Because there'll be some land swapping going on. I know that through Russia and through conversations with everybody.' Zelensky has consistently dismissed the idea of "giving their land to the occupier." 9. What's Chinese for taco? Trump extended his trade truce with China for another 90 days. Again. He posted on Truth Social that he signed the executive order for the extension, and that "all other elements of the Agreement will remain the same." Beijing at the same time also announced the extension of the tariff pause, according to the Ministry of Commerce. The previous deadline was set to expire at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. Had that happened the U.S. could have ratcheted up taxes on Chinese imports from an already high 30%, and Beijing could have responded by raising retaliatory levies on U.S. exports to China. 10 Liz Truss has done an interview with (another) far right US podcast provocateur Liz Truss sat down for a chat with the supremely awful Ben Shapiro in Hungary a few weeks ago. And today, Shapiro has finally got round to editing and releasing this meeting of minds. During the chat she managed to slag off the NHS, Isembard Kingdom Brunel, Shakespeare, Peter Pan, Jerusalem, Mary Poppins, Elgar, Pink Floyd, The Clash, James Bond and the Queen. All in once sentence. "The views expressed in the Olympic ceremony are not those of the average Briton," she said, lured into it by Shapiro having a dig at the NHS' prominence in the event. Truss went on: "The problem is we have an elite that hates Britain, and they have done for some time. And that is the history of Jeremy Corbyn, Keir Starmer. They want to help the human rights of anybody who doesn't live in Britain but they're very reticent to defend our own interests." There you go then. If you liked the opening ceremony, you hate Britain, says Liz Truss. Oh hang on, what did Liz say about the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony back in 2013? "Last summer's Olympics opening ceremony seamlessly combined Isambard Kingdom Brunel and William Shakespeare, Tim Berners-Lee and Mary Poppins." Right. But there's no quotes from her since then where she properly gets behind the vibe of 2012, are there? Like, nothing where she says we need to harness the spirit of it? Right you are, Liz.
Hindustan Times
07-08-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
This Is the Pacific Northwest on Drugs
A new study finds that Oregon's and Washington state's experiments with decriminalizing drug possession caused a surge in serious violent and property crime, especially in Portland and Seattle. The paper, a collaboration among five criminologists, is the first to demonstrate that the states' reforms—since undone by their legislatures amid massive public backlash—increased crime relative to the rest of the country. Prior research played down the phenomenon, allowing defenders of decriminalization to pretend the issue wasn't real. The July paper adds to the growing evidence that America's experiments with drug decriminalization have proved disastrous. In particular, the research highlights how decriminalization concentrated crime and disorder in Seattle and Portland, rendering parts of the two already troubled cities almost unlivable. It also counters drug liberalizers' argument that public-safety issues around drugs stem from the substances' criminalization—rather than from the drugs themselves. In 2020, Oregon and Washington took steps to decriminalize drug possession—the former by ballot initiative and the latter by state supreme-court ruling. To estimate the effects of these changes, the paper's authors compare the states with 23 others. They use roughly three years of data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System, a crime-data collection system managed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The authors also use modern econometric methods that allow them to discern decriminalization's effects more precisely than prior research did. The results are startling. In both states, the authors find statistically significant increases in total violent crime, murder, robbery, aggravated assault, total property crime, burglary and motor-vehicle theft. Their results are equivalent to a roughly 14% increase in the daily violent-crime rate in both states. Daily property crimes rose by 21% in Washington and 9% in Oregon. Several 'robustness' checks indicate the effects aren't statistical flukes. These results are probably unsurprising to residents, whose objections to the results of decriminalization helped drive repeal. When I visited Portland in 2023, large portions of the city had been taken over by open-air drug markets. People used drugs openly on public sidewalks, including in front of police officers. It makes sense that such concentrated disorder and dysfunction resulted in a surge in crime. Crime wasn't the only thing that increased—overdose deaths did too. Research from the University of Toronto's Noah Spencer, published in the Journal of Health Economics, finds decriminalization significantly increased overdose deaths in Oregon. He also finds a significant increase in deaths in Washington, though he considers these findings more tentative given the much shorter period in which the state decriminalized. Drug decriminalization increased crime, overdose deaths and visible disorder. Perhaps that's why both Portland and Seattle saw population growth slow, or even reverse, following decriminalization. Drug-liberalization advocates have tried to play down the failures of decriminalization. They've blamed the emergent problems on the pandemic, and the Drug Policy Alliance has labeled criticisms as 'an intense disinformation campaign by drug war defenders.' These advocates insist that decriminalization is an evidence-based, science-backed approach, but the science isn't on their side. America has tried drug decriminalization, and the results are in: more crime, more disorder, more death. Next time radicals try to bring it to the ballot box, voters should remember how it went. Mr. Lehman is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a senior editor of City Journal.
Irish Daily Star
22-04-2025
- Irish Daily Star
Walmart's bizarre anti-theft meat packaging leaves visitors 'stunned'
A visitor filmed their recent experience at an unspecified Walmart store in the U.S. as they found themselves utterly shocked at finding meat products laying underneath metal wires. The TikTok showed that each meat package was locked with a clasp that only a store employee can unlock, in addition to the metal wiring around it. Like a clothing store, the security lock triggers alarms at the exit. This video is just the latest in a pattern, as consumers have been pointing out Walmart's increasingly ridiculous , and creative, ways of 'reducing theft' for about four years. The Covid pandemic marked a change in the way many retailers do business, and the country's biggest stores found themselves coming up with diverse ways of stopping steaks from being stolen. Read More Related Articles Donald Trump branded 'dumbest President ever' after six-word comment about Congo Read More Related Articles Viral Walmart incident sees four charged after allegedly riding horses through store TikTok has a variety of hashtags, including #meatsecurity and #walmartmeatsecurity that show poultry in wire mesh bags, tbones in plastic see-through cases (like the kind electronics and other expensive items would be in), wire meshing covering the entire counter, security tags, and cabinets that require an employee with a key. All of these have left behind an annoyed and baffled public. One commenter wrote, "What happened to America? I'm a Canadian and I still don't lock my door. Nobody steals nothing. I think you guys have lost your way." Another suggests, "They need to lower the price and we won't steal." Another shocked consumer with a South African flag questions, "What's happening in the land of the free?" A still from a TikTok video that shows Walmart meat behind metal as protection from thieves (Image: TikTok) One person points out, 'If I see this? I am not only in the wrong store! But the wrong neighborhood." One more TikTok user points out, "Lovely, instead of making food affordable, they make it imprisoned. WTF, but the billionaires are happy, the rest is irrelevant." Of course, Walmart isn't the only company to take strange measures against shoplifters, as Target, Walgreens, Rite Aid, and many other national chains have said that shoplifting has been on the rise. Someone points out the security tag on Walmart meat (Image: oakwood19136/TikTok) In 2024, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in an interview to CNBC that, "theft is an issue. It's higher than what it has historically been," and warned that "prices will be higher, and/or stores will close" if local locations can't get shoplifting under control. According to National Incident-Based Reporting System data, the shoplifting rate was 93% higher in 2023 than in 2019, rising from 159.3 per 100,000 population in 2019 to 308.8 in 2023. Some of the most targeted categories include the health and beauty aisle, apparel, eyewear, footwear, electronics, groceries, office supplies, and infant care and toys, according to a report from
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Yahoo
Peoria sees increase in some crimes for second consecutive year, police report shows
The city of Peoria saw an increase in crimes reported for the second consecutive year, according to the Peoria Police Department's annual report released Wednesday. According to statistics from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), Peoria saw 16,753 crime reports in 2024, a 9.89% increase from 2023. The biggest increases came in crimes against people, up nearly 20% from 2023 and accounting for 36% of all reported crimes in Peoria. Among the crimes designated as crimes against people, intimidations went up by 33% year-over-year, from 406 in 2023 to 542 in 2024. Simple assaults also went up by 21% year-over-year, from 3,045 in 2023 to 3,692 last year. More: Peoria man found guilty for 2023 liquor store shooting that killed one The city also saw an increase in the number of rapes reported, with 167 reported in 2024 compared with 100 reported in 2023 – a 67% increase – while there was a slight jump in the number of aggravated assaults and kidnappings. However, there were slightly fewer murders – defined by NIBRS as the "willful killing of one human being by another" – reported in Peoria in 2024, with just 14 reported compared to 21 in 2023, according to Peoria police statistics. The number of crimes against property went up slightly to 5%, making up 54% of all crime reported in Peoria, while crimes against society went up 3%. The city saw a large increase in burglaries in 2024, with 1,608 reported according to NIBRS, up 88% from the 855 reported in 2023. There was also a 36% increase in the number of drug violations, going from 307 in 2023 to 416 in 2024, along with a 35% increase in the discovery of pornography or other obscene material. However, the number of motor vehicle thefts declined to 932 in 2024 from 1,150 in 2023, a decrease of 19%, with a decrease also being reported in the number of weapons law violations at the tune of a 16% decrease. The city reported a 20% increase in adult arrests, with a 32% increase in the number of women being arrested. In total, 4,342 adults were arrested in 2024, up from 3,630 in 2023. In terms of juvenile arrests, police said that they made 648 arrests of those under 18, up 15% from 2023. The department saw 225 girls arrested, an 18% increase from 2023. The department made 225 felony arrests in 2024, seizing over 34,000 grams of controlled substances, recovering 166 firearms and executing 111 search warrants. The department's crime scene unit also handled over 7,000 pieces of evidence and over 500 shell casings, with 438 DNA samples, 546 controlled substances and 407 firearms being examined, with 365 leads for the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network being made. More: Peoria conducts polygraph exams on police and fire recruits. Here's why that could change Despite the overall increase in arrests and crime, police reported fewer shootings and gunshot victims, with a 28% decrease in the overall number of shooting incidents and a 34% decrease in the number of victims. Just 90 people were struck by gunfire in 2024, compared to 136 in 2023, with just 18 deaths compared to 19 in 2023. The number of homicides in Peoria also went down 9%, from 25 in 2023 to 23 in 2024. The department lauded the work of their detectives in getting 17 of those homicides solved, at a rate of 73%. The department's clearance rate was higher than the national average of 58% recorded in NIBRS. The city also saw a 21% decrease in the number of ShotSpotter alerts, with 990 being reported in 2024, along with just 4,084 rounds being fired for a 26% decrease from 2023. However, the number of total calls for service went up 6%, with 125,268 calls being handled by dispatch for police. The department's patrol unit also handled 3,679 traffic accidents, with over 8,500 traffic stops also being conducted. Peoria Police Department spokesperson Semone Roth told the Journal Star that there wasn't an overarching reason for why certain crimes went up and others went down on the year, noting that no one can predict why they fluctuate from one year to another. The department's annual report also showed a 1% increase in the number of minority officers working for them, with 23% of all officers identifying as such. 41% of the 35 new officers hired in 2024 were minorities, with 13% of them being women. More: A traffic stop, cannabis and stolen gun: Documents reveal more on Peoria prosecutor arrest This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Peoria sees increase in some crimes for second consecutive year
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Yahoo
Homicide, violent crime rates dropped in Los Angeles last year, officials say
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell and other law enforcement officials held a press conference on Monday morning to discuss last year's safety statistics for the city. Offenses that were analyzed were mainly violent crimes, including homicide, robbery, rape, aggravated assault and property crimes such as burglary and vehicle theft. The message relayed to the public on Monday morning: crime is down. Homicide rates in particular have decreased significantly, officials said, evidenced by a 14% decrease across the city in 2024 as compared to 2023. The number of victims who were shot also went down by approximately 19% year-over-year, according to officials. Construction continues on D Line extension in Beverly Hills; Wilshire Blvd. closed for nearly a month A 28% decrease in homicides was reported for LAPD's Valley Bureau in 2024 compared to 2023, and in the Hollenbeck Division, which encompasses the communities of Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights, El Sereno, Montecito Heights, Hermon, Rose Hills and Monterey Hills, homicides decreased in 2024 by 65%, the mayor's office stated. 'Homicides dropped in 2023 and again in 2024,' L.A. Mayor Bass said. 'Three of the four geographic bureaus within the LAPD saw a reduction in homicides.' 'The number of Angelenos shot decreased by 20%,' Bass added. 'Citywide violent crimes, which also decreased in 2023, fell again in 2024.' It wasn't just homicides that officials analyzed, as data surrounding other violent crimes was also released Monday that showed aggravated assaults and rapes decreased; there were 2,371 fewer aggravated assault incidents and 97 fewer rapes in 2024, decreases of 10% and 6%, respectively. Robbery rates remained flat, officials added. Driver allowed to use bathroom after crashing into L.A. home As for property crimes, which include burglary, vehicle theft, vehicle part theft and property theft, those rates decreased too. According to authorities, there were 7,259 fewer incidents regarding those offenses in 2024 as compared to 2023, which marks a nearly 7% decrease. 'Hundreds of arrests were made and more than $36 million in stolen merchandise recovered by the Organized Retail Crime Task Force to address retail theft in Los Angeles,' Mayor Bass' office said in a press release. 'More than 100 arrests were made by the Heavy Metal Task Force and thousands of pounds of copper wire recovered.' Traffic safety crimes were also looked at, and the data found that felony hit-and-runs, deadly DUIs and fatal collisions all fell by 6.5%, 36.7% and 7%, respectively. One good increase was reported: LAPD reported a four-year high of applications to join the department last November. Viral towel debate finally answered Officials released a statement detailing the way the data is gathered, which can be viewed below. In 2024, LAPD transitioned its data collection process to align with the federally reported National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) in order to bring the Department in line with National reporting standard expectations as mandated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Many cities throughout the country underwent this change in prior years. This new system captures data on all offenses within a single incident, providing a more comprehensive view of crime. NIBRS also includes more data elements, such as victim and offender demographics, relationships, and the presence of weapons, enhancing crime analysis and reporting accuracy. For 2024, the Person and Property Crime statistics are a combination of the Summary Reporting System (SRS) and the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) standards, meaning data provided are the most accurate estimations due to the change in methodology for each category. Homicides and Victims Shot are counted by hand and not affected by the change in data procedure. Looking to improve on their successes, both Bass and McDonnell pledged to keep working on the fight against crime, especially property crimes. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
