Florida Crime Down for 13th Straight Year (AP)

[Up2Late]

(And of course, Jeb Bush IS trying to take credit for something that started LONG before he ever got there. AND he's also rigging the numbers, just to make sure; check out the last paragraph.)

Jun 23, 7:25 PM EDT

Florida Crime Down for 13th Straight Year

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Serious crime in Florida dropped for the 13th straight year in 2004 to the lowest rate in 34 years, officials announced Thursday.

Gov. Jeb Bush said tougher sentencing laws that increased prison terms for the most violent criminals were working.

Rates for murder, rape, assault, major theft and other serious crimes dropped 6 percent from 2003 to 2004. Nonviolent crimes such as burglary and theft decreased 4 percent while violent crime showed a small decrease, 0.4 percent.

The total number of tracked crimes also dropped - despite continued population growth in the state, according to data released by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.



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FDLE: www.fdle.state.fl.us

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[Media_Lies_Daily]

1. Those that collect the stats control how they're reported.

[Cornjob]

2. Has anyone checked FL's demographics?

I suspect that there has been a drop in younger immigrants and state-to state transplants and a fast growth in retirees.

Those 80-year olds don't commit many violent crimes!

[wakeme2008]

3. As a Florida person,,, Thank you Bill Clinton for Community Policing..

:) :) :)

[Up2Late]

4. I love the Cartoon, "Pass the Failure Fries"That's great!

When did he do that one? Do you have a link?

If you like him, you should also check out this guy, David Horsey at Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Here's a link:
<http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/horsey/>

[wakeme2008]

7. lol today

Best place is here http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/luckovich/2005/061505.html

but you may have to get a bug-me-not password. :)

[billyoc]

5. Wow, how DO they do it?

While simultaneously continuing to increase the number of felons thrown off the voting rolls?! Must be that faith-based math... :eyes:

[mom cat]

6. Good one!

:rofl:

[are_we_united_yet]

10. Maybe Jeb borrowed the Editor of the Climate report

[AnneD]

16. When I saw the title

my first thought was-does the decrease include voter fraud and felonies committed during the elections-obviously not....more faith based, intelligently designed ballots and voter roles.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

8. They forgot to count

the parcel of land that the Gov's mansion sits on in Tally. Could make up for the rest of the state.

[Initech]

9. Crime down, overall stupidity up.

As evidenced by the last TWO elections, Terri Schiavo and the reelection of Jeb Bush.

Anyone see the correlation?

[lakeguy]

11. sure it is, they just "purge" the list of records of non-eligible crimes!

[merwin]

12. Since when was rape and assault NOT considered a violent crime?

[Judi Lynn]

13. Crime reports on upswing (!!!!?)

Posted on Fri, Jun. 24, 2005

BROWARD SHERIFF'S OFFICE

Crime reports on upswing

A year after BSO admitted to cooking its crime statistics, a state report shows the number of crimes reported in most cities under BSO watch have jumped.

BY WANDA J. DeMARZO AND HANNAH SAMPSON
[e-mail]

While Florida overall showed a sizable drop in violent crime last year, cities patrolled by the Broward Sheriff's Office reported, for the most part, just the opposite.

In fact, the crime rate in all but two BSO cities rose between 3 and 64 percent, according to state statistics released Thursday.
(snip)

Statewide, statistics show crime at a 34-year low, or a decrease of 6 percent from 2003. Violent crime -- murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault -- dropped 3 percent, and non-violent crimes fell 6.5 percent.

The BSO hike, however, comes more than a year after the agency revealed that deputies commonly downgraded crimes, or ''cooked their books'' by reclassifying more serious offenses as minor calls. The process kept crime rates in the cities patrolled by BSO artificially low, a Herald investigation showed.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/11971359.htm
(Free registration is required)

[Roland99]

14. I guess they're not counting election fraud and sexual offenders.

[gauguin57]

15. Music vill prove zat nothing in Austria has changed.

What happened to the homeless of New York under Big Rudy? Well, wherever they went, the criminals of Florida have been "sent" by Big Jeb.

[leesa]

17. I guess they are just talking about "blue collar crimes" Corporate crime

seems to be robust, especially within the GOP.

[LisaM]

18. Maybe Rodney Paige has moved to Florida

and is in charge of the stats.