Sure, the data can't always tell the entire story. But one representative who's asking for a deployment isn't suggesting the same solution for a more violent place in his own district.
Comparing crime rates from one year to the other or one city to another definitely has its challenges. I recall speaking with a police officer once about a decrease in crime. He told me that it hadn’t really changed, but how they reported it had. The example he gave was that if someone broke into five cars in a parking lot, they used to write five different reports, but they changed that to one report to cut down on paperwork. The reply to a similar question about the decrease in murders was that people were shooting each other as much as ever, it’s just that the doctors have gotten a whole lot better at saving them.
I consider the DeCarlos Brown incident as a kind of "Human lightning". Lightning is a known risk, unpredictable and unpreventable. It can kill outside or inside a home (fire, electrocution). There are a few things that can reduce the risk but the risk is never eliminated or even diminished significantly. Same with the mentally ill with a knife. How often? Very rare. Tragic, certainly. Laws and military response? To make me laugh.
Comparing crime rates from one year to the other or one city to another definitely has its challenges. I recall speaking with a police officer once about a decrease in crime. He told me that it hadn’t really changed, but how they reported it had. The example he gave was that if someone broke into five cars in a parking lot, they used to write five different reports, but they changed that to one report to cut down on paperwork. The reply to a similar question about the decrease in murders was that people were shooting each other as much as ever, it’s just that the doctors have gotten a whole lot better at saving them.
I consider the DeCarlos Brown incident as a kind of "Human lightning". Lightning is a known risk, unpredictable and unpreventable. It can kill outside or inside a home (fire, electrocution). There are a few things that can reduce the risk but the risk is never eliminated or even diminished significantly. Same with the mentally ill with a knife. How often? Very rare. Tragic, certainly. Laws and military response? To make me laugh.