On Wednesday’s Fox & Friends, the Curvy Couch Crew didn’t just disapprove of Judge Shira Scheindlin’s ruling that New York City’s stop and frisk program is unconstitutional, they seemed determined to frighten their viewers into thinking that they were about to be victims of violent crimes at any moment. Gretchen Carlson set the tone when she announced, “People in Chicago, now, well, they’re warning New York: expect bad stuff to start happening here as a result of not being able to do that.”
Brian Kilmeade defended the program and took it to the next step, saying, “Listen to these stats. In Chicago, which is a third of the size of New York… there were a hundred fewer murders in New York. In Chicago, it’s like the wild west out there in that urban community.”
Peter Johnson, Jr. took the cake. He said, “The likelihood is, in my view, that the murder rate in New York City will skyrocket." The more that people are becoming aware of this, people in the white community, black community, brown community, people of all colors are saying that they are terrified as to what effect this will have because they’ve seen the dramatic decrease in death and violence in New York City.”
But as Media Matters reports, there are statistics to contradict such claims. For example, the New York Civil Liberties Union notes, “Other large cities experienced larger violent crime declines without relying on stop and frisk abuses. 59 percent in Los Angeles, 56 percent in New Orleans, 49 percent in Dallas, and 37 percent in Baltimore.” The Urban Justice Center says Los Angeles had a 50% decline in murders from 2002 to now, and Washington, D.C.’s murder rate dropped 43% with a less aggressive plan. In contrast, New York had a 12% murder drop.
Video below, from the August 14th, 2013 Fox & Friends, via Media Matters:
Most Americans would be murdered by now if it weren’t for us wealthy people sounding the alarm!
I live in Indiana, about a 5 hour drive from Chicago and have been there several times. I have never been the least bit afraid to travel alone in almost any neighborhood even though I am a small white female. There are a few where every wall and bridge is covered in gang graffiti that make me nervous. Most of the violence has been between the Bloods and the Crips and I don’t look like I belong to either. Like everything else reported in the media it’s all been over-hyped. I quit watching all national news shows when the West Nile virus was reported as an “Omigod we’re all gonna die!” manner.
That’s where NYC made its big mistake. If the cops had been stopping and frisking just 1 out of every 10 white men (wouldn’t it be really fun to see this happening on Wall Street?), they could’ve had a bit more “plausibility” in their actions. Unfortunately, the numbers just didn’t bear that out.
(Note: I do not agree with “stop and frisk” at all. But, the way the police were obviously targeting minorities was just so blatant I can’t believe the city thought it would get away with it. Bloomberg obviously forgot how many legal citizens and residents were targeted after 9/11 because they “looked” like they were terrorists. Whether the targeting is done by private individuals or the police, it’s not right.)
“At the very least this should be a favorite city for anyone who loves food.”
Especially deep dish pizza. Correct me if I’m wrong on this, but isn’t Chicago the city where the Pizzeria Uno chain was born in 1943?
:^)
[just FYI Gooch X, I’ve been to Chicago twice — in the summer of 1995 and in the summer of 1998]
:^)
Even the Tenderloin isn’t as bad as Fox News makes us out to be, but their viewers don’t care- It justifies hate against civil rights and gay people to repeat. And we’ve taken a backseat to Chicago, which is their smokescreen for black people, since they don’t seem to have a problem past one or two mostly black districts… That somehow make up the whole city. And from what I hear, they only do the same 3-4 neighborhoods out of that.
As a lifelong Chicagoan myself, it’s always been very funny to me how people who have never been to the city only know of its violence. They completely overlook the millions upon millions of peaceful residents who have worked incredibly hard to create one of the most culturally diverse and “alive” cities in the world. At the very least this should be a favorite city for anyone who loves food.
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2013/04/15/states-with-the-most-gun-violence/
This whole ‘Chicago is an EVIL place!!’ meme is ridiculous and intended to somehow tarnish President Obama and any city that attempts any gun control at all. (Not to mention that reinforcing the impression that Chicago is full of un-plugged savages that will vote for any Kenyan that runs for office!)
