Thomas: Valley crime, immigration sweeps lowers auto thefts

[ben_jenne]

Source: ABC15.com Phoenix

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas held a press conference Sunday to announce a significant decline in auto thefts in the Valley.

Thomas attributed this to the fight against both crime and illegal immigration.

A Maricopa County Attorney's Office press release stated, "Newly released figures from the National Insurance Crime Bureau show that from 2006 to 2008, the Phoenix area fell from having the 4th highest ranking in the nation for auto theft to 19th in the nation."

According to the report, the number of auto thefts per 100,000 people dropped 36 percent, from 979 in 2006 to 602 in 2008.

Vehicle thefts have fallen 46 percent since 2004, according to the report.



Read more: Thomas: Valley crime, immigration sweeps lowers auto thefts

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Gee, maybe they were doing the jobs that Americans don't want! My car insurance rates have gone down, so thank you Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.

[Wilms]

1. If my country was flooded with foreign AK-47s, I might cross the border too.

Cause - Effect, and thinking all that through (which is a job SOME Americans can't do for themselves, so they have multi-millionaire right wing wind bags do it for them).

[WriteDown]

2. The US makes Russian AK-47's?

Who knew :eyes:?

[Wilms]

3. No. But it's reported that the guns are entering Mexico through the US.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090401/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_drug_war_guns

[DissedByBush]

5. An article loaded with inaccuracies and inconsistencies

"Stick a couple of AK-47 rifles in your trunk, and chances are you'll whiz right through."

and

"North of the border, however, the cartels simply pay straw buyers to pick up weapons at gun shops, gun shows or flea markets"

You can't buy an AK-47 at any of these venues. It would be very dumb to even try to channel an AK-47 through the US. Better to go through Central America.

"And while cartels get most of their high-caliber assault rifles from the U.S."

Again, no assault rifles are sold to civilians in the US. In addition, one main feature of an assault rifle is that it is not high-caliber. They are intermediate-power rounds of moderate caliber in order to hold lots of ammo without being too heavy, and so they don't get too uncontrollable on full auto.

"You're seeing truly military-type guns, like grenade launchers," Mangan said. "They're not coming from the U.S."

There we go. Finally some truth seeps in way at the bottom of the article.

[Wilms]

7. Thanks for pointing that out.

Seeing this...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-sugarmann/sorry-nra--mexican-gun-tr_b_187328.html

about this...
http://www.vpc.org/press/0904indict.htm

...is showing me it's layered.

[DissedByBush]

11. The VPC loves to muddy the waters

"For its investigation, the VPC obtained records filed in 21 federal firearms smuggling prosecutions in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Texas between February 2006 and February 2009"

Sounds like cherry-picking. Only 21 prosecutions in three years across four states?

"Traffickers seek out semiautomatic assault weapons (42 percent of guns named), armor-piercing handguns (18 percent), and 50 caliber anti-armor sniper rifles (two percent). "

1. "Assault weapon" is ill-defined. I can put a different stock on something not considered an assault weapon and ta-da, it's an assault weapon.

2. Armor-piercing handguns? There is no such thing as a handgun that itself is considered to be armor-piercing. Armor-piercing handgun ammunition has been illegal in this country for years.

3. 50-cal. This one doesn't have any spin or factual errors, except that they are talking about only 10 guns.

"More than 90 percent of the 226 rifles named could be identified as semiautomatic assault rifles, primarily AK-47 and AR-15 variants. "

The term "Assault Rifle" actually has a definition, and it does not include being semiautomatic. Plus the AR-15 is a civilian semiautomatic rifle, while the AK-47 is a military fully-automatic assault rifle, yet they lump them together. The M-16 and its variants are the fully-automatic military versions, and you can't buy those.

"More than one-third of the guns obtained by traffickers were made by foreign manufacturers. "

And this is our problem how?

"At least 70,000 rounds of ammunition were directly involved in the cases. "

That sounds like a lot until you put it into perspective. That is only 140 rounds per weapon, two-thirds of the standard US infantry load-out for a soldier carrying an assault rifle.

The VPC likes to use hype, fear and confusion to advance its agenda to take away the rights of the people.

[Lasher]

12. Armor piercing handguns?

Do they come with handgun launchers?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

10. Calderon et al are talking out their ass on this

[ProgressiveProfessor]

9. Mexico certainly does not meet that criteria

[AlphaCentauri]

4. With this crisis nobody has time to look at junk cars, people prefer to smoke or sniff

some import drugs, you know to make life easier.

[EFerrari]

6. Joe, is that you?

[jmm]

8. Correlation isn't necessarily causation

What proof do they have that immigration and car theft are linked?