The word on Fox “News” is that crime rates are exploding, and its host Kimberly Guilfoyle has something to say about it. She believes that President Obama should be paying more attention to our national crime wave than something as silly and irrelevant as global climate change and the threat it poses to our national security (not to mention human existence on Planet Earth).
She says “it’s such a glaring example of priorities askew…he thinks the biggest threat to national security is climate change.” Then, just when you start to be impressed with Ms. Guilfoyle’s vocabulary and her ability to say big words like “priorities” and “askew,” she pops off with: “ “I fail still at this point to understand where he’s coming from because I don’t speak the language he speaks. … Whoa. Where do you even go from there?” Later in the program, she adds, “He should work for the Weather Channel…he’s like, obsessed with cumulus clouds!” One wonders if she actually knows what a cumulus cloud is.
Oh, how broadcast journalism standards have fallen since the demise of the Fairness Doctrine and the departure of giants such as Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow. Aside from the fact that Ms. Guilfoyle has the mentality of a high school sophomore (of course, consider who her employer is), her information that Obama should be concentrating on the “escalating crime rate” is completely inaccurate.
In fact, since US crime rates peaked in 1991, they have been on a downward trajectory, both in actual numbers and in relation to the size of the population. In 2009, President Obama’s first year in office, the population of the US was just over 307 million. That year, the FBI reported a total of 10,762,956 criminal acts across the nation. It works out to a rate of approximately 3.47%. There was a slight increase during 2011, but in 2012, crime rates took another nosedive. By 2013 (the most recent year for which data is available), the population had grown to well over 316 million, but the number of recorded criminal acts fell to 9,795,658 – a rate of just under 3.1%. According to FBI data, the number of violent crimes in the U.S. has dropped by nearly 14% between 2009 and 2013. Furthermore, as reported earlier this week here at The Ring of Fire, the intentional killing of law enforcement officers in the line of duty has fallen by 10% under Obama’s presidency.
Now, let’s take a look at some other statistics.
Since 2009, the amount of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere has risen from 386.66 parts per million to 400.84, as of July 2015 – which, incidentally, was the hottest July on record. Average temperatures across the planet have risen by more than 2%. Sea level has risen by approximately 3 centimeters – and it could increase by has much as ten feet by the end of this century. Scientists are predicting that the Arctic will be ice-free within the next generation, threatening the entire biome. ROF recently published an article showing an Alaskan town drowning due to climate change, and just today published side-by-side photos showing the rapid melting of glaciers. Yet, all the world’s Corporate “People” can think about is how it will open up new trade routes and business opportunities (not to mention drilling).
Right, Kimberly…it’s all irrelevant compared to those “crime rates” your Uncle Rupert made up for you. Kimberly, please ask your producers to learn to GTS (Google that Sh*t) so that you don’t continue to look like a complete moron.
