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Politics and Activism

The “Ferguson Effect”

Why America has seen an increase in crime over the last year.

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The “Ferguson Effect”
bossip.com

Let’s have a discussion about the current attitude in America towards law enforcement. As a matter of fact, we can just sum it up in one word: disrespect.

Due to incidents like Ferguson, false reports and the liberal media have demonized law enforcement. Oh, and by the way, according to the final reports from the Department of Justice, the whole “Hands Up Don’t Shoot” situation never happened, and it was ruled by the Department of Justice that Officer Darren Wilson did the proper procedure he was suppose to do. But where is he today? Ostracized by the American public who is growing in support for the Black Lives Matter movement and false, catchy slogans.

This is bound to have consequences, and we are already seeing them. On Wednesday, May 11, FBI director James Comey gave his opinion on why crime and murders are beginning to heighten in American cities. He offered an explanation-- the “Ferguson Effect” or the “Viral Video Effect” when police officers engage in less aggressive policing due to fears that they too will end up on video and in the same fate as officer Wilson.

Comey is making his assumption off of new statistics that show increases in murders in the last year in cities such as Washington, Baltimore and St. Louis. Ironically, these are all places that have seen protests and riots against law enforcement. Coincidence? I think not.

But of course, the Obama Administration came out promptly to reject this claim, as if they are blind to this growing epidemic in America. Comey said that after sitting down with several law enforcement agents, he learned that police officers refuse to engage in confrontations with the public out of fear of being videotaped. But let’s see what the Obama Administration does about that.

So congratulations to all of you protesters and rioters who call for the death of police officers. You finally achieved your goal. Police officers are too afraid to do their job and allow you all to run amuck through your cities, robbing and killing one another. You really overdid yourselves this time.

This issue of disrespect towards law enforcement strikes me on a personal level; I have several family members in law enforcement, and I can’t stand seeing them demonized for no apparent reason. Although there may be some crooked cops, a large majority are not, and this is what the public doesn’t understand. People mistakenly believe that police officers wake up in the morning with no other goal than to shoot someone for the fun of it. It’s this type of ignorant thinking that has led to the current negative mood towards law enforcement and the growing increase in crime in American cities.

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