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A comment on 'Calling bullshit': the college class on how not to be duped by the news. Parent comment

Re:'Calling bullshit': the college class on how not to be du... by tptacek on Wednesday April 17, 2019 @11:52AM (#19683638)
This is phenomenally off-topic, but since it's so easy to rebut: border counties in the US have lower crime than the rest of the country.
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Re:'Calling bullshit': the college class on how not to be du... by BrandonMarc on Wednesday April 17, 2019 @02:48PM (#19685316)
... and the officials don't have an incentive to diminish the stats?
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Re:'Calling bullshit': the college class on how not to be du... by tptacek on Wednesday April 17, 2019 @03:02PM (#19685433)
They currently (and at the time the stats were last collected) have the exact opposite incentive.
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Re:'Calling bullshit': the college class on how not to be du... by BrandonMarc on Wednesday April 17, 2019 @06:20PM (#19686947)
Maybe from the top of the US administration, yes. But from the guys over the nearby river, with their "plata o plomo" billboards ...

Maybe I'm wrong. I'll simply observe officials have various incentives to tweak the numbers in either direction.

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Re:'Calling bullshit': the college class on how not to be du... by s_y_n_t_a_x on Wednesday April 17, 2019 @12:19PM (#19683923)
I was responding to the claim that Fox is pushing an invasion narrative. The invasion is real and dismissing it doesn't help anyone. Unless you live down there or have family that does, you can't comprehend how bad it is down there right now. Maybe we should have livestreams setup so the rest of the country can see it.
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Re:'Calling bullshit': the college class on how not to be du... by SketchySeaBeast on Wednesday April 17, 2019 @12:28PM (#19684005)
https://www.cato.org/blog/crime-along-mexican-border-lower-r...

According to the FBI it's lower. Unless it's changed dramatically in the last 2 years, at which point I'd suggest that maybe this new "tough on immigration" tactic isn't working.

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[dead]
Re:'Calling bullshit': the college class on how not to be du... by tptacek on Wednesday April 17, 2019 @03:15PM (#19685541)
No, the crime level is lower in all 23 US/Mexico border counties. And it's not "not the worst place in the world"; it's better than the both US average and the average of all non-border counties. The problem you are alluding to does not, in the actual FBI data, exist.
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Re:'Calling bullshit': the college class on how not to be du... by s_y_n_t_a_x on Wednesday April 17, 2019 @04:00PM (#19685941)
So we shouldn't do anything about mass shootings because they don't affect the overall crime stats?

We should address any crime problem if there is a solution, not ignore it because it didn't make a large overall difference and the city is safer than other cities.

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Re:'Calling bullshit': the college class on how not to be du... by tptacek on Wednesday April 17, 2019 @04:12PM (#19686066)
The statement you made at the top of this thread is literally and simply false. That's all I came here to say.
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Re:'Calling bullshit': the college class on how not to be du... by s_y_n_t_a_x on Wednesday April 17, 2019 @09:28PM (#19687989)
Citing an FBI statistic doesn't make it safe. Just because those cities have a lower crime rate doesn't mean that a crime problem does not exist.
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