The El Paso Miracle (or a gun-control supporters nightmare)

[pipmaster1971]

http://www.reason.com/news/show/134579.html?bunfingers

By conventional wisdom, El Paso, Texas should be one of the scariest cities in America. In 2007, the city's poverty rate was a shade over 27 percent, more than twice the national average. Median household income was $35,600, well below the national average of $48,000. El Paso is three-quarters Hispanic, and more than a quarter of its residents are foreign-born. Given that it's nearly impossible for low-skilled immigrants to work in the United States legitimately, it's safe to say that a significant percentage of El Paso's foreign-born population is living here illegally.

El Paso also has some of the laxer gun control policies of any non-Texan big city in the country, mostly due to gun-friendly state law. And famously, El Paso sits just over the Rio Grande from one of the most violent cities in the western hemisphere, Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, home to a staggering 2,500 homicides in the last 18 months alone. A city of illegal immigrants with easy access to guns, just across the river from a metropolis ripped apart by brutal drug war violence. Should be a bloodbath, right?

Here's the surprise: There were just 18 murders in El Paso last year, in a city of 736,000 people. To compare, Baltimore, with 637,000 residents, had 234 killings. In fact, since the beginning of 2008, there were nearly as many El Pasoans murdered while visiting Juarez (20) than there were murdered in their home town (23).

El Paso is among the safest big cities in America. For the better part of the last decade, only Honolulu has had a lower violent crime rate (El Paso slipped to third last year, behind New York). Men's Health magazine recently ranked El Paso the second "happiest" city in America, right after Laredo, Texas—another border town, where the Hispanic population is approaching 95 percent. Continued in the link...

http://www.reason.com/news/show/134579.html?bunfingers

 

[hminsky]

It also is states that illegal immigrants are responsible for a lower crime rate than native born US citizens.

 

[terraformer]

It also is states that illegal immigrants are responsible for a lower crime rate than native born US citizens.

This is the problem I have with people who pick apart stats but don't seem to get it. The guy just got finished picking apart the notion that says this should be a deadly city because it has no gun control. In effect he has shown that any correlation with gun presence and violence is not causation. He then goes and makes a wild ass statement assuming causation based on flimsy correlation. What an f'ing dipshit.

 

[livefreeorhere]

This is the problem I have with people who pick apart stats but don't seem to get it. The guy just got finished picking apart the notion that says this should be a deadly city because it has no gun control. In effect he has shown that any correlation with gun presence and violence is not causation. He then goes and makes a wild ass statement assuming causation based on flimsy correlation. What an f'ing dipshit.

people forget the golden rule of correlation when it suits their cause. It works because most people don't understand that correlation doesn't imply causation.

 

[01SVTvert]

Yep, the illegals are behind all of us having a happy utopia of crime free cities, after all, look at how crime free Mexico is! Only Americans commit crimes!


Just take a look at who is on the "lowest crime rate" NEW YORK!!! Stats go by reported crimes, so when a person in NY gets mugged and shrugs it off, no crime. Drug enforcement in NY is way lower than actual sales / use. When an illegal in El Paso (or any other community) gets mugged / broken in home / whatever then they DON'T report it to the police, as they dont want to run the risk of getting grabbed for illegal immigration.
Murder is one of the few crimes that usually gets reported. PD administrations were known at one point for manipulating data by changing what the call was for, change "shots fired" to "noise complaint" and "B&E" to "lost property" and crime stats change.

 

[sgtdemeo]

actually, the common misconception that illegal aliens willingly break laws because they "have already broken one" holds no water, and is, for the vast majority of illegals, totally false. MOST illegals, having tried very hard to get into this country, either by paying a mule, or sneaking across thhe border, are VERY careful to NOT attract any attention that would chance them being sent home. they did, after all come here for a reason, usually to support their families.

And, for the record, no matter why they are here, its STILL ILLEGAL.

on another note, correlation may not be causation, but what a whopper of a correlation!