Our top story tonight is that crime is down along with political posturing. One of the big problems the Bush Administration has is not getting out in front of stories like this and taking credit, deserved or not, like the Clinton Administration seem to do at the drop of a hat. With no one spinning the story from the administration the news media is left to its own devices and raw data and has to come up with some analysis based on something that they did not have to do in the past - research.

Crime was supposed to go up. Conventional wisdom says more unemployment equals more crime. So now reporters have to go out and interview some faceless "experts" to figure out why crime went down instead of up.

"Experts say a number of factors have driven the crime rate down, including a more mature, less violent illegal drug trade, a drop in gang membership and even improved home locks and alarms that deter would-be burglars. "

You can read the Bureau of Justice's crime statistics here. A very good discussion can be found here.

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