Police reform would help address child exploitation
You may have heard about the missing children found in Georgia. Over a period of two weeks, a mix of agencies, spearheaded by US Marshals, located 39 missing children in Operation Not Forgotten. 15 were victims of trafficking, 1 was a victim of parental kidnapping, and the rest were runaways. 6 of them were found across six other states: Florida, Kentucky, Michigan, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee.
Understandably, people are cheering this result, but to me at least, it’s not that impressive, considering there are roughly 460,000 children reported missing in the U.S. every year.
You see, one of the reasons I’m not a fan of police is because not long ago, two female friends of mine were roofied in a bar; A local bar, within a 20 minute drive from Uniontown, somewhere your own daughter, wife, sister, or friends might get lunch. The perpetrator was caught in the act, on camera, and identified as a regular, and both girls tested positive for the drug, but because they realized they’d been drugged and left before they were harmed, he wasn’t charged. No attempted rape, no assault or drug charges, nothing. He wasn’t even arrested. As far as the police were concerned, no crime had been committed.
Now, that made me curious about just how often this happened, so I did some research and found on the FBI website the uniform crime reporting clearance rates. When a suspect is arrested, or known to be the culprit but can’t be arrested due to exceptional circumstances, such as fleeing the country or having died, the crime is considered cleared. The higher the clearance rate, the better.
Let’s start with violent crimes. The 2018 clearance rate for murder and manslaughter? 62.3% Rape? 33.5%. Robbery? 30.4%. Aggravated assault? 52.4% The rest are unsolved. But what about property crimes? It’s worse. The clearance rate for burglary? 13.9%. Larceny? 18.9%. Motor vehicle theft? 13.8%.
“You’re cherry-picking!” Nope. I chose 2018 because it’s the most recent year with complete data for all the things I’m talking about. Those numbers have been flat for 20 years. Look it up for yourself.
“So give them more funding!” We’ve already tried that. Over the last 20 years, police funding, benefits, and salaries have increased, they’ve gotten access to military gear and technology that ranges from riot gear to tanks, they’ve formed stronger relationships with federal agencies, their jobs have gotten safer, and their unions have grown stronger, but they haven’t gotten better at doing what we pay them to do.
Part of the solution is better training. Search Youtube for “contempt of cop” and set your alarm clock to wake you from the wormhole of power-tripping cowards you’re about to dive into. Spend some time exploring the work of Matt Agorist, honorably discharged USMC Veteran, former intelligence operator, and co-founder of the Free Thought Project. There’s a whole lot of time and tax dollars wasted because officers get their feelings hurt, don’t know the law, or don’t follow proper procedure.
Another step is lightening the load of law enforcement. Police shouldn’t be responsible for drug abuse, homelessness, or mental health issues. That should be the realm of social workers. They’re better trained to handle them, they’re cheaper, and they’re less dangerous. Police kill roughly 1,000 people a year in the U.S. That number would be reduced if guns weren’t brought to situations that didn’t require them, and that number doesn’t include the number of overdose victims that officers simply choose to let die. Having fewer things competing for their attention would no doubt increase officer safety as well.
Prison reform is another component. Our prison system is too focused on punishment instead of rehabilitation, which is why 79% of convicts are arrested within 6 years of being released, much higher than other countries. Our prisons are “correctional facilities” in name only.
Another part of the problem is, well, where are the top three places I see cops? Inside Sheetz, patrolling Walmart’s parking lot, and sitting in some speed trap waiting to pounce on someone going 10 over. Pardon me for thinking their priorities aren’t in order. Maybe some changes can be made to prevent departments from being overly reliant on traffic violations for revenue, and favoring corporations over the public.
The final part is, of course, the problem of racism. “But it’s black on black murder you should worry about!” Really? Look at the FBI’s Table 21. Sure, most murder and robbery arrests are black, and though they’re not the majority of arrests for most other crimes, blacks are still usually in the 30% range, and that’s really high for a minority group that only makes up 14% of the U.S. population.
But you know, go back to those clearance rates. Most crimes are never solved. Maybe, just maybe, clearance rates are so low because police focus too much on blacks, and miss the majority of suspects because most perpetrators aren’t black. And take a closer look at crimes where an officer would investigate someone before being able to see the color of their skin, like DUI. Blacks only make up 13.6% of DUI arrests in Table 21, which is proportional to their make up of the population. Hmmm…
If we’re going to actually address child exploitation, and we should, we need a systemic approach that goes beyond giving it lip service and throwing more money at it.
Justin Sims
Uniontown