February 27, 2013

Violent crime worse in Britain than in US

by MICHAEL CLARKE, Daily Mail

Britain has a higher crime rate than any other rich nation except Australia, according to a survey yesterday.

The chances of having your car stolen are greater in England and Wales than anywhere else in the developed world, it said.

The international crime report was published as Tony Blair prepared to unveil plans to tackle persistent offenders.

The Prime Minister - who will next week become the first serving premier to visit a British prison when he launches his law-and-order package - said the crackdown would target the 100,000 worst offenders who are responsible for the bulk of crimes.

He is to announce a £700 million programme - described by senior government sources as 'very radical' - in a bid to win back the initiative in the law and order debate in the runup to the general election expected in May.

According to the figures released yesterday, 3.6 per cent of the population of England and

Wales were victims of violent crime in 1999 - second only to Australia, where the figure was 4.1 per cent.

Scotland had a slightly lower rate of violence, at 3.4 per cent.

In the U.S., only 2 per cent of the population suffered an assault or robbery.

One in 40 people in England and Wales had their cars stolen in 1999, the highest rate in the 17 developed countries examined.

Just one in 200 Americans suffered a car theft while in Japan there was only one per 1,000 of the population.

The study looked at crime rates in 12 western European countries plus Poland, Canada, the U.S., Australia and Japan.

The chances of becoming a victim of any crime in England and Wales were second only to Australia.

Here, 26 per cent suffered from crime against an average across all the countries of just 21 per cent.

England and Wales are among the countries 'most pressured by crime', the report concludes.

The two countries had the equal highest number of crimes per head of population of all 17 states.

There were 58 incidents for every 100 inhabitants in England and Wales - the same as Australia.

The study said the size of the sample meant first place in many categories came down to statistical accident, suggesting that for many areas of crime Britain may actually be worst in the world.

Its authors insisted the general rankings accurately reflect the real situation.

Home Secretary Jack Straw admitted the survey painted a bleak picture for Britain.

He said that after four years in power, Labour still had a mountain to climb to defeat crime. He added: 'Levels of victimisation are higher here than in most comparable countries for most categories of crime.

'So, while I pay tribute to the police, councils and communities for their hard work in reducing crime over recent years, no one should be under any illusions about the challenges ahead.

'Crime may be falling but it is still too high, and we have a great deal more to do to make Britain a safer place in which to live.'

Shadow home secretary Ann Widdecombe said: 'It's no wonder the people of England and Wales have more chance of becoming victims of crime when there are over 2,500 fewer police, violent crime is soaring and 30,000 convicted prisoners have been let out before serving even half their sentences.

'Four years after the last election it is clear Labour have failed to be tough on crime as they promised they would be.'

Experts said one reason Britain had higher crime rates was because it had a higher population density.

More people living in cities - and more people living alone - gave greater opportunities for crimes like burglary, said Professor Michael Hough of South Bank University.

He said the apparently high crime rate in Australia could be due to a growing drug problem in Sydney, which is home to a fifth of the country's 19million population.

But the latest research is a big embarrassment to Labour.

Recent statistics show that, while overall crime in Britain is falling, violence, particularly street robbery, is rising sharply.

One of Labour's key election slogans during its 1997 election triumph was 'Tough on Crime, Tough on the Causes of Crime'.

More black people jailed in England and Wales proportionally than in US

New study finds seven times more black people per population are in prison – in the US number is just four times as many
• Datablog: How fair is Britain? Get the key data

Randeep Ramesh, social affairs editor
The Guardian, Sunday 10 October 2010

The number of black people jailed in England and Wales is seven times larger than the amount they make up of the population. Photograph: i love images / Alamy/Alamy

The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Thursday 14 October 2010

A headline and the first paragraph of a story that examined the numbers of people of African-Caribbean and African descent in the prison system in the UK and the US wrongly stated, owing to an editing error, that black people in England and Wales were more at risk of jail than black Americans. The rest of the story, based on a new report, accurately reported that the proportion of black people in jail in the UK was almost seven times their share of the population, whereas in the US the proportion of black prisoners is four times greater than their population share. The expression of the figures was extrapolated from the Equality and Human Rights Commission report How Fair is Britain? The report drew on a 2008 Ministry of Justice document, footnoted as the source of the EHRC statement that stated: "Black prisoners make up 15% of the prisoner population and this compares with 2.2% of the general population – there is greater disproportionality in the number of black people in prisons in the UK than there is in the United States." According to a range of sources, including the US justice department, about 12% of the US population is black and about 40% to 45% of the US prison population is black. According to Roy Walmsley's World Prison Population List 2009, the US jails 756 of every 100,000 of its population. The corresponding figure for England and Wales is 153. Based on the figures above, America jails 3% of its black population, and England and Wales 1%. This means that a black person in the US is three times as likely to be imprisoned as in England and Wales.

The proportion of black people in prison in England and Wales is higher than in the United States, a landmark report released today by the Equality and Human Rights Commission reveals.

The commission's first triennial report into the subject, How Fair is Britain, shows that the proportion of people of African-Caribbean and African descent incarcerated here is almost seven times greater to their share of the population. In the United States, the proportion of black prisoners to population is about four times greater.

The report, which aims to set out how to measure "fairness" in Britain, says that ethnic minorities are "substantially over-represented in the custodial system". It suggests many of those jailed have "mental health issues, learning disabilities, have been in care or experienced abuse".

Experts and politicians said over-representation of black men was a result of decades of racial prejudice in the criminal justice system and an overly punitive approach to penal affairs.

"People will be and should be shocked by this data," said Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust. "We have a tendency to say we are better than the US, but we have not got prison right."

Lyon said that although there had been "numerous efforts to address racism in the prison system … we have yet to get a better relationship between justice authorities and black communities. Instead we have ended up with mistrust breeding mistrust."

Evidence of this damaged relationship can be found in the commission's report. On the streets, black people were subjected to what the report describes as an "excess" of 145,000 stop and searches in 2008. It notes that black people constitute less than 3% of the population, yet made up 15% of people stopped by police.

The commission found that five times more black people than white people per head of population in England and Wales are imprisoned. The ethnic minority prison population has doubled in a decade – from 11,332 in 1998 to 22,421 in 2008. Over a similar period, the overall number of prisoners rose by less than two thirds. The commission says that the total number of people behind bars accelerated in the last decade despite "a similar number of crimes being reported to the police as in the early 1990s … the volume of indictable offences has fallen over this time".

A quarter of the people in prison are from an ethnic minority. Muslims now make up 12% of the prison population in England and Wales.

Some on the left of the Labour party blame its policies while in power. Diane Abbott, who raised the alarm over the growing numbers of jailed black men as a backbencher, said she "very much regretted that the last Labour government swallowed [former home secretary] Michael Howard's line that 'prison works'."

"There was never a serious examination of the consequences of locking up a generation of young black men. The result is there are some prisons in the south east which are now virtually all black. Many are converting to Islam."

The problems may start at school. The commission points out that black children are three times as likely to be permanently excluded from education.

"We are reaping the effects of criminalising a community in the 1970s," says Ben Bowling, professor of criminal justice at Kings College London and a former adviser to the home affairs select committee.

"The question is how you break the cycle when young men experience custody. Three quarters simply re-offend. We have to intervene with families more effectively to stop kids going to prison. That means looking at school exclusions. You need to deal with issues like mental health and substance abuse. It is not enough to throw our hands in the air."

The policies implemented in the last decade mean incarceration levels in Britain are now among the highest in western Europe. England and Wales have an imprisonment rate of 155 per 100,000 and Scotland of 149 per 100,000 of the population. This contrasts with rates of less than 100 per 100,000 for most of Britain's neighbours.

The commission also warns of the rising numbers of women in jails. It says that the "number of women prisoners has nearly doubled since 1995 in England and Wales, and since 2000 in Scotland – currently around 5% of prisoners are women".

The Ministry of Justice said that the government would not comment on individual portions of the report.

February 26, 2013

People who are anti-gun or anti-Catholic try to put me down when I say I am PRO-LIFE & PRO-GUN.

How can you be both? It's really simple.

Love toward oneself remains a fundamental principle of morality. Therefore it is legitimate to insist on respect for one's own right to life. Someone who defends his life is not guilty of murder even if he is forced to deal his aggressor a lethal blow:

February 20, 2013

Opinion

Peter the Roman

4:23 PM 02/16/2013

Theo Caldwell

Investor and Broadcaster

“In extreme persecution, the seat of the Holy Roman Church will be occupied by Peter the Roman, who will feed the sheep through many tribulations, at the term of which the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the formidable Judge will judge his people. The End.” — Saint Malachy, 1139 A.D.

This cheery bit of foreknowledge comes courtesy of a 12th-century Irish bishop, Malachy, who, while visiting Rome, had a vision of all the popes who were yet to reign. There were 112 in total, beginning with Celestine II in 1143 and ending, in Malachy’s telling, with “Peter the Roman,” whose papacy seems to coincide with the destruction of the church and the end of the world.

With the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, the first pontiff to step down in almost 600 years, Malachy’s prophecy has garnered renewed attention — not least because, on Malachy’s list, Benedict was number 111.

Which means, if you care to believe a reasonably well-substantiated prophecy that has endured almost 900 years (allowing for some generous interpretations over the centuries and Internet wackdoodlery in the modern era), Peter the Roman is on deck.

Malachy’s prediction has been juxtaposed with the vision of Pope Pius X, who served from 1903 to 1914, and who claimed to have foreseen another pope, also named Pius, fleeing an apocalyptic scene: “What I have seen is terrifying! Will I be the one, or will it be a successor? What is certain is that the pope will leave Rome and, in leaving the Vatican, he will have to pass over the dead bodies of his priests! Do not tell anyone this while I am alive.”

So, as we await a new leader for the largest denomination of the world’s largest religion, at least one saint and one former pope advise that things are about to get bumpy. If “Peter the Roman” is indeed elected, and if he chooses the name Pius (which would make him Pius XIII), watch this space.

One wonders, however, if there is an appetite for more prophesied destruction these days. In early 2013, our view of dire predictions is particularly jaundiced, as we expected to be clawing through the rubble of the colossal, millennia-old “oops” that was the Mayan Apocalypse right about now.

After 9/11, people flocked to the prophecies of Nostradamus, supposing the 16th-century French seer had somehow presaged the tragedy. The closest he came was: “In the year 1999 and seven months, the great King of Terror will come from the sky. He will bring back the Khan of the Mongols. Before and after Mars rules happily” (Century X, Quatrain LXXII). As you can clearly see, apart from getting the date, names and actual events wrong, Nostradamus called it perfectly.

Having read every word published by Nostradamus and watched every History Channel show about him (which invariably amount to lengthy interviews with that one Nostradamus expert who looks just like him, complete with cornered hat and long beard, apparently having foreseen an age when that ensemble is back in fashion), I regretfully conclude that he predicted nothing whatsoever — at least, not in any form that is of practical value in the present.

As always with these things, one has to squint and tilt one’s head, stand on one foot, re-arrange the letters and read it backward by the light of a full moon while gargling with yak’s blood for it to seem as though the prediction came to pass. Oh — and it only ever works in hindsight. After the fact, people fall all over themselves to cram ancient gibberish into the news of the day.

It’s not that I don’t believe in prophecy. I do. But most of us suck at it (President Romney, please call your Oval Office).

This is likely because most people’s predictions amount to their utterly human, deeply flawed best guess, informed by some measure of wishful thinking. The prophet Jeremiah warned of those who make predictions without proper sourcing: “They speak a vision of their own imagination, not from the mouth of the Lord” (Jer. 23:16).

And how often, really, does God speak specifically to one person, divulging the future, for the edification of all mankind? Yes, yes, God speaks to each of us all the time in subtle ways, but this is different. We are talking about the Creator of the Universe addressing one of his billions of children, saying, “This will happen at such-and-such a place, at such-and-such a time — be sure to dress accordingly.”

Perhaps St. Malachy was the recipient of such a divine word. My bias is that if God were selecting a vessel for a lengthy tale, he’d choose an Irishman. Even so, if the word is true, what good does it do us? Will we listen? Are we even able to comprehend its true meaning?

Over the centuries, prophets of every religion have been ignored, mistreated and killed in nasty ways straight from the ballad of Brave Sir Robin. And when their message does eke through, people are swift and relentless in locking prophetic words into their own vision of how the world ought to be, as though celestial knowledge were bestowed for the sole reason of validating their personal opinion.

Indeed, the astounding lack of humility with which signs and wonders are interpreted by both secular and religious people makes reasoned debate all but impossible.

On the secular side, consider the venom of environmentalists, academics and various politically correct commissars toward anyone who hesitates to swallow the scroll of their “climate change” prophecies, for just one example.

As to religious interpreters, take your pick. Apart from the unpleasantness throughout the Middle East, in some measure predicated by differing views of dusty auguries, more benign examples can be gleaned from Christians who are convinced that their narrow reading of scripture is the one, true version. In my lifetime, I have heard public figures from Ronald Reagan to the pope to Maury Povich proposed as candidates for the Antichrist.

In the books of Daniel and Revelation — the Bible’s foremost sections regarding the End of Days — and throughout the Gospels, one sentiment is repeated in numerous forms. To paraphrase: “You don’t know when the end is coming, so don’t even bother trying to guess.”

Jesus put it more succinctly: “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32) and “Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming” (Matthew 24:42), as two of many examples.

So — what, then? If true prophecy rarely happens and if, when it does, people mangle and squabble over it, and if we cannot even know when to duck, how can Malachy’s prediction be of any use?

The cardinals who will gather to choose the next bishop of Rome before Easter are learned men, well aware of the prophecy of St. Malachy. Since I do not seem to be invited to the conclave this time, I shall have to wait and watch for the white smoke like everyone else. My guess, made without any claim to otherworldly insight, and without a hint of self-interest (since I am not in the running — though if the cardinals opt for a Presbyterian pope, I’m up for it), is that they will choose either Cardinal Tarcisio Pietro Bertone of Italy or Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson of Ghana.

But whoever is elevated, and whether he calls himself Pius the Thirteenth or Hank the First, he will face challenges in piloting the bark of St. Peter. In this, the sentiment of St. Malachy’s prediction is surely true but unremarkable. If, however, Malachy’s vision bears out more fully and an existential crisis is imminent, the church and the world will require a leader inspired by God. Let us pray that the cardinals, and the pope they elect, will be granted such wisdom.

Theo Caldwell is the author of “Finn the half-Great.” You can reach him at theo@halfgreat.com

Tags: Catholic Church, Peter the Roman,

February 19, 2013

It's about time someone shuts this loser Angelo Carusone up! He spent over $250k on a liberal law degree from University of Madison WI and can't pass the bar exam. He wouldn't know the truth if it bit him in ugly ass. He tweets vile hate 24/7 against Glenn Beck first. Then George Soros Media Matters hired him to spew their hate for them. I hope Trump ties Carusone panties up for years.

2 HRS

Donald Trump Threatens to Sue Macy’s Protester for $25 Million (Exclusive)

9:49 AM PST 2/19/2013 by Aaron Couch

Comments (27)

2169

“Dump Trump” organizer Angelo Carusone tells THR a cease and desist letter he received shows the "Apprentice" star engages in "bullying and intimidation."

Cindy Ord/Getty Images

Donald Trump

Donald Trump can’t fire the man protesting his relationship with Macy’s, but the Apprenticestar might have sights on suing him.

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Trump attorney Alan Gartenhas sent a cease and desist letter to Angelo Carusone, organizer of the online campaign Dump Trump, and threatened to seek damages of “not less than” $25 million if the protest continues, The Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusively. Carusone tells THR he plans to continue the protest and called the threat of legal action "bullying" on Trump's part.

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In a letter dated Dec. 27, Garten charged Carusone with undertaking “malicious efforts” to interfere with Trump’s business relationships and spreading misinformation about the size and success of the protest.

“Rather than simply engage in lawful protest, you have apparently made it your mission to interfere with and intentionally disrupt Mr. Trump’s long-standing and well-established business relationship with Macy’s as well as his contractual dealings with other third parties through mob-like bullying and coercion,” reads the letter from Garten, executive vp and litigation counsel at The Trump Organization.

(The letter can be read in full here.)

Carusone launched Dump Trump in November and asked Macy’s to sever its ties with Trump, who works as a spokesman for the company and whose brand of clothes and fragrances are carried in its stores. The campaign has charged Trump with making sexist and “racially charged” comments, which Carusone says are in opposition to Macy’s family-friendly image.

Dump Trump’s actions have included commissioning mobile billboards to circle Macy’s corporate headquarters and flagship New York location late last year. In addition, a Dump Trump petition at SignOn.org has attracted more than 680,000 signatures. Garten's letter implies Carusone's Dump Trump associates (which include the left-leaning SignOn.org) could also face legal action.

In response to the letter, Carusone engaged legal counsel from the nonprofit Public Citizen and said he intends to continue with the campaign.

PHOTO: Anti-Donald Trump Billboard Circling Macy's Headquarters

“I would hope that Macy’s would recognize now that the things we’ve been saying about Donald Trump are in fact accurate, and they are cause for concern,” Carusone tells THR. “That Trump does engage in bullying and intimidation. That his brand is inconsistent with the Macy’s brand.”

In addition to threatening to seek no less than $25 million in damages, the letter also touts the recent $5 million defamation lawsuit Trump’s Miss Universe L.P. won after former contestant Sheena Monnin said the competition was “fixed” and “trashy.”

“Your unwarranted and tortious acts are far more egregious than Ms. Monnin’s defamatory statements and, I assure you, will result in a judgment of stunning proportions if you choose to persist in your illegal behavior,” the letter reads.

Carusone’s attorney, Paul Alan Levy, cited recent protests that he said illustrate that his client’s campaign is protected under the First Amendment. (Read Levy's response letterhere.)

“From the boycott of Missouri for blocking the Equal Rights Amendment to refusing to eat at Chick-fil-A for opposing gay rights, the ability to stimulate a mass ‘vote with your wallet’ campaign has been a key weapon for activists that has long been recognized under the First Amendment,” Levy says.

Garten says he was surprised to hear Carusone was going public with the letter.

“The guy’s desperate for media attention -- the guy's a loser," he says, adding that the protest has had no negative effect on the sales of Trump merchandise at Macy's.

THR has reached out to Macy's for comment.

E-mail: aaron.couch@THR.com

Twitter: @AaronCouch