I'm back, and so is the crime

Well, after a brief hiatus I thought it was time to bring back the blog. Here's an entry that also doubles as my column for the News-Times this week. Enjoy.

The war in Iraq isn’t the only battle America is losing right now. There’s a war going on here at home, too, on the streets of just about every major city. And local law enforcement officials from Los Angeles to Minneapolis are buried with unsolved crimes.

According to a report this week in “Newsweek” magazine, “A recent surge in violent crime is creating anxiety at the Justice Department and posing potential political problems for the Bush administration."

No doubt this issue will become yet another nail in Bush’s weak, inept presidency.

The report continues: “ The 3.7 percent rise for the first six months of 2006, cited in a new FBI report, was greater than expected and included a 9.7 percent spike in robberies. (Minneapolis and Oakland, Calif., saw jumps of more than 30 percent.) Police groups say the surge comes at the same time the White House has drastically cut aid for state and local law enforcement programs. ‘We don’t have the support from Washington,’ says Los Angeles Police Chief Bill Bratton.”

What’s wrong with this picture? The chief of police in America’s second largest city feels abandoned by the federal government, all the while billions upon billions of dollars are being sent to Iraq to fund the “war on terror.”

And America’s streets are themselves becoming war zones.

Government figures show the FBI has shifted agents off standard criminal cases to work counterterrorism; the bureau has 994 fewer criminal case agents than it did on September 11, 2001 — an 18 percent drop.

According to “Newsweek,” “(A Justice Department rep says it’s “highly unlikely” the crime increase is tied to federal funding, but they’ve dispatched teams to investigate.) The numbers have also caught the attention of top Democrats on Capitol Hill.

In a recent letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller, Judiciary Committee member Sen. Dianne Feinstein called the crime increases “alarming.”

That they are.

Yet our nation’s leader is hell bent on winning a war that has been deemed unwinnable by top generals around the world.

What about domestic problems, Mr. President? Don’t those matter, too? We can’t “cut and run” from our own streets and let criminals run rampant all in the name of fighting terrorism.

Not only is Iraq in turmoil since the U.S. invasion there, but it appears that America, too, is losing her grip on civility.

Go figure.