The LA Times writes today about a surge of violent crime on buses and subways:
Crime on L.A. trains, buses rises as riders return: ‘Poor people are suffering the most
On the Los Angeles public transit system — where ridership has rebounded to about 843,000 weekday daily riders from a pandemic low of about 363,800 — normal has also brought with it a rise in crime.
In 2021, through September, reports of violent crimes were up 25% from the same time last year and 9% from 2019, according to L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation Authority data.
It sounds as if ridership has increased 132% while violent crime has increased only 25%. That would be pretty good, wouldn't it?
But no. The ridership numbers compare ridership now with the lowest month of the pandemic. In fact, ridership through the first three quarters of the year is just about identical from 2020 to 2021, which means that a rise in crime really is a rise in crime:
This is for all Part 1 (serious) crimes, not just violent crimes. Why couldn't the LA Times just say this instead of presenting us with pointless absolute numbers and useless ridership comparisons?
POSTSCRIPT: Ridership here. Crime from 2009-2018 here. Crime from 2019-2021 here.
And elsewhere... This is a really unusual crime on a bus in Michigan.
https://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/2021/11/man-shot-by-kalamazoo-officers-after-he-wounded-others-on-bus-has-died.html
Awash in guns and crazy dudes.
And this is really awful from The NY Times. They are still pretending that all we have to do is give these crazy people help and they will stop killing each other... and innocent people just going about their business.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/23/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-patrick-sharkey.html
No mention of lead poisoning by the way.
They talk about violence for most of the interview without mentioning the people committing the crimes. As if some kid said, "Gosh darnit, I can't go to the library today so I think I'll buy and gun and go shoot some one I don't like."
Oh well. Keep your head down.
I was going to say, is there lead in the Fauci Ouchie Fake Inoculant 5G Body Tracker?
The number of criminals has stayed the same. There are fewer riders for them to commit crimes against, but they still wanna crime as always. Ergo, a higher rate of crime/rider.
That F'king newspaper is at it also.
https://twitter.com/equalityAlec/status/1464647227650019331
Because the LA Times wants people to arrive at the “it’s pretty good” conclusion, while preserving plausible deniability.
If someone is on a bus when a crime is committed, I doubt they find solace if it's a crowded bus.
You could even argue that if it's a crowded bus, while the per-capita crime rate is lower than a near-empty bus, the fact that it took place amidst more people means the culprits are bolder, and hence, more dangerous.
Why couldn't the LA Times just say this instead of presenting us with pointless absolute numbers and useless ridership comparisons?
Occam's Razor: they're not capable of doing so. It should be obvious to one and all by now that vast swaths of our media landscape are dominated by journalists who are substantially innumerate and lack even the most tenuous grasp of statistics.