HR advocate: 4,500 people killed in Venezuela under Nicolás Maduro

[sabrina 1]

5. Crime has fallen over the past 20 years according to what we are told.

But then we have the revelations exposing the under-reporting of crime by the NYPD eg, a huge scandal surfacing over the past number of years.

Crime 'inched up in 2011' according to reports by the FBI.

Your attempt to place the blame or credit for crime on Presidents, well on SOME presidents, is the issue here.

The drop in crime rates in the US over the past 20 years therefore should be credited to both Bushes, and Clinton as well as Obama. And the rise in crime in 2011 would be Obama's fault, according to your logic.

However when you factor in the under-reporting of serious crime by large PDs such as the NYPD for political purposes, it's hard to know exactly what the facts are.

The point is that presidents have little control over crime rates. The US eg, credits the drop in crime rates (which are still not certain are accurate considering the recent scandals surrounding the reporting) to such Reagan policies as the Drug War. High incarceration is credited with the 'drop in crime'. I suppose Venezuela could lock up one in less than 100 of its citizens but if they did that, the Chavez haters would accuse them of oppression.

Another factor credited with the 'drop in crime rates' in the US is 'lengthier sentences'. The Prison Industrial Complex therefore is responsible being that they lobby for longer sentences to ensure their profit margins.

Obama is President of Chicago and all the other cities on the highest crime list of cities in the country. So, according to your logic, he IS responsible for Chicago, St. Louis and all the others.

Crime is a tragedy for all of its victims, ONE victim is one too many. To try to use such a tragic issue for political purposes is reprehensible. No president is responsible for what criminals choose to do. And no president can magically prevent crime. It takes many programs, policies and most of all, COOPERATION of all citizens, parties etc. to deal with the issue of crime.

It is really sick to see the glee with which the anti-Chavez contingency repeatedly 'boasts' about Venezuela's crime rate. Sort of the way Republicans here blamed Democrats for high crime, for being 'soft on criminals' but we all know they could not have cared less about the issue.

If you care about those victims, then the best thing to do is try to help the government in its efforts to reduce the numbers. USING those victims for political purposes is simply disgusting.