Keep 'em scared

H.L. Mencken once said,

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary

A shining example of this can be found in a recent report that was obtained by the Associated Press. Of course, it had to use the Freedom of Information Act to get it. According to the report,

It's one of the safest parts of America, and it's getting safer.
It's the U.S.-Mexico border, and even as politicians say more federal troops are needed to fight rising violence, government data show it actually isn't so dangerous after all.

Furthermore,

The top four big U.S. cities with the lowest rates of violent crime are all in border states: San Diego, Phoenix and El Paso and Austin, Texas, according to a new FBI report.

Lloyd Eaterling, spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol, states that, "The border is safer now than it's ever been..."
OK...so what's the current spin by the lawmakers and governors in the region?

"Violence in the vicinity of the U.S.-Mexico border continues to increase at an alarming rate. We believe that this violence represents a serious threat to the national security of the United States as well as a serious threat to U.S. citizens that live along the 1,969-mile long border," a dozen bipartisan members of Congress from border states wrote President Obama

Thus, President Obama is sending 1,200 National Guard troops and increasing funding by $50 million. I suppose to mollify those who are "clamorous to be led to safety."

But FBI crime reports for 2009 say violent crime in Arizona declined. And violent crimes in southwest border counties are among the lowest in the nation per capita - they've dropped by more than 30 percent in the last two decades. Of 25 of America's largest cities, San Diego - with one out of four residents an immigrant - has the lowest number of violent crimes per capita.

I live in the Back Country about 60 miles east of San Diego and am very involved in the community (volunteer communications for the local fire department, etc.). We have many "travelers" (as the local Border Patrol agents call them), and yet there are very little crimes associated with them, other than their being here illegally, of course. Our "crimes" consist mostly with alcohol-related issues or domestic violence by the local citizenry. There are isolated incidences, of course, but certainly not an "increase at an alarming rate."
Isabel Garcia of Derechos Humanos sums it up quite well,

"Politicians are hyping up this incredible fear across the country about the border, but these numbers show these are lies being perpetrated on the American public."

Score one more for the fear-mongers who are manipulating our country to further their own agenda.

Note: This can also be found on the Bill of Rights Defense Committee blog, where I posted it earlier.