Will the AP publish anything if the source has a Ph.D.?
WASHINGTON — Murders, robberies and aggravated assaults in the United States increased last year, spurring an overall rise in violent crime for the first time since 2001, according to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. […]
“We see that budgets for policing are being slashed and the federal government has gotten out of that business,” said James Alan Fox, a criminal justice professor at Northeastern University in Boston. “Funding for prevention at the federal level and many localities are down and the (National Rifle Association) has renewed strength.”
NRO reader (and NRA life member) Roger B. writes:
Can this [gentleman] show us, empirically, any connection between the NRA’s “renewed strength” (whatever that means in his mind) and crime rates?
And, might the scandalously lazy AP reporter have bothered to contact the NRA for reaction to the ambiguous charge?
Apparently not. Instead, this is what passes for balance:
Still, Fox said, “We’re still far better off than we were during the double-digit crime inflation we saw in the 1970s.”
A 5-percent increase after three straight years of falling rates? I’m glad the AP could get a criminal justice prof to help us figure out that we’re better off than we were in the ’70s.