Detroit police chief: Want crime to drop? Start carrying

[Gingersnap]

Detroit police chief: Want crime to drop? Start carrying
POSTED AT 11:31 AM ON JANUARY 3, 2014 BY ED MORRISSEY


James Craig just took over the office of police chief last summer, but he’s already making waves in Detroit. A reorganization of the police force in the bankrupt metropolis has resulted in a higher clearance rate in murder cases, and the murder rate dropped almost 14% in 2013 from its two-decade high in 2012. However, Craig has some advice for his fellow citizens in Motor City if they really want a drop in crime — arm yourselves:

If more citizens were armed, criminals would think twice about attacking them, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said Thursday.

Urban police chiefs are typically in favor of gun control or reluctant to discuss the issue, but Craig on Thursday was candid about how he’s changed his mind.

“When we look at the good community members who have concealed weapons permits, the likelihood they’ll shoot is based on a lack of confidence in this Police Department,” Craig said at a press conference at police headquarters, adding that he thinks more Detroit citizens feel safer, thanks in part to a 7 percent drop in violent crime in 2013.

Craig wasn’t always in favor of carry permits. While serving in Los Angeles, where permits are issued on a notoriously miserly (and some would add arbitrary) manner, Craig thought that disarmament was the answer. It wasn’t until he went to a carry-friendly jurisdiction that he understood the difference:

Craig said he started believing that legal gun owners can deter crime when he became police chief in Portland, Maine, in 2009.

“Coming from California (Craig was on the Los Angeles police force for 28 years), where it takes an act of Congress to get a concealed weapon permit, I got to Maine, where they give out lots of CCWs (carrying concealed weapon permits), and I had a stack of CCW permits I was denying; that was my orientation.

“I changed my orientation real quick. Maine is one of the safest places in America. Clearly, suspects knew that good Americans were armed.”

It’s not the first time that Craig has endorsed carry permits. Two weeks ago, the Detroit News notes, he told a local radio show that responsibly armed citizens act as a deterrent, in a city that can clearly use one. Even though the murder rate has dropped, Detroit had as many homicides in 2013 as New York City, which has more than ten times its population. Chicago had only 29 more than Detroit despite having nearly four times the population. It’s worth noting that both New York City and Chicago have extraordinary restrictions on gun ownership, let alone carry permits, and Chicago routinely ranks among the worst American metropolitan areas for homicides and violent crime.

At least one recent study suggests that Craig hits the nail on the head. A long-range study by a Quinnipiac University economist shows that states with more restrictions on firearm ownership and carry permits had higher murder rates by guns than gun-friendly states, and suggests that increasing restrictions on concealed-carry permits pushes the murder rate up, not down. It also showed that assault-weapons bans had no effect on murder rates.

Perhaps more police chiefs will change their orientation with this information at hand. State legislatures should get ahead of that curve.

Hotair

[Adam]

Ya know, it's kind of interesting. I've been watching Detroit and Michigan in general for the last two years or so. The one small glimmering light in a crash-and-burn like Detroit has experienced is that there's almost a clean slate that can be worked with. It will be interesting to see what comes out of this.

I've said for a while that Kevyn Orr (or whatever his name is) would be wise to knock on the door of gun manufacturers who are ready to flee Massachusetts and Maryland and Colorado. I'm uncertain exactly how much executive power he has, but if I had been he and had the power, I would have just started condemning old factories that are still standing but abandoned, and I would have flown in people from Ruger and Springfield Armory and the like and I would have just presented them with these buildings with big red bows around them. It's an easy deal to revitalize the city: give these guys the building and the land, lock, stock, and barrel (no pun intended), tax-free for the next ten years, if only they will come in and either rehab the buildings into manufacturing facilities or else knock them down and build new, and bring with them jobs, either hiring locals or else bringing people from whence they came. Do the same with housing: basically just allow "homesteading" for anyone who is willing to come to an abandoned house inside the city limits and either restore the place or else knock it down and start over.

Same goes for any other manufacturing that could be open to being persuaded, as well as any transportation industries that could be persuaded. The infrastructure is already there; all that's really needed is people and jobs for them to fill.

In the meantime, I'd put up signs on every city block within the city limits telling everyone who enters the city that while Detroit's police force is depleted and overworked, it is now mandatory that everyone over 18 in the city limits who is not a felon and is not mentally deficient is required to carry a gun. Crime will plummet, jobs will soar, there would be a twenty-year growth spurt in construction, and people will flock to the place for their opportunity for starting anew in a brand new, infantile market that will grow.


Anyway, that's my personal fantasy. It'll be interesting to see what happens with the place. They have a tremendous opportunity, if only they will take it.

[scott]

Ya know, it's kind of interesting. I've been watching Detroit and Michigan in general for the last two years or so. The one small glimmering light in a crash-and-burn like Detroit has experienced is that there's almost a clean slate that can be worked with. It will be interesting to see what comes out of this.

I've said for a while that Kevyn Orr (or whatever his name is) would be wise to knock on the door of gun manufacturers who are ready to flee Massachusetts and Maryland and Colorado. I'm uncertain exactly how much executive power he has, but if I had been he and had the power, I would have just started condemning old factories that are still standing but abandoned, and I would have flown in people from Ruger and Springfield Armory and the like and I would have just presented them with these buildings with big red bows around them. It's an easy deal to revitalize the city: give these guys the building and the land, lock, stock, and barrel (no pun intended), tax-free for the next ten years, if only they will come in and either rehab the buildings into manufacturing facilities or else knock them down and build new, and bring with them jobs, either hiring locals or else bringing people from whence they came. Do the same with housing: basically just allow "homesteading" for anyone who is willing to come to an abandoned house inside the city limits and either restore the place or else knock it down and start over.

Same goes for any other manufacturing that could be open to being persuaded, as well as any transportation industries that could be persuaded. The infrastructure is already there; all that's really needed is people and jobs for them to fill.

In the meantime, I'd put up signs on every city block within the city limits telling everyone who enters the city that while Detroit's police force is depleted and overworked, it is now mandatory that everyone over 18 in the city limits who is not a felon and is not mentally deficient is required to carry a gun. Crime will plummet, jobs will soar, there would be a twenty-year growth spurt in construction, and people will flock to the place for their opportunity for starting anew in a brand new, infantile market that will grow.


Anyway, that's my personal fantasy. It'll be interesting to see what happens with the place. They have a tremendous opportunity, if only they will take it.

The reason this wouldn't work is the same reason Detroit is in such shambles now: there's more money to be made getting government funding to "help" the people.

[Lanie]

I'm glad that the murder rate has gone down in Detroit. That's one of those places I look at and often have trouble having hope for it. Looks like this guy is doing a good job.

I've never heard of a cop being against carrying before.

[Lanie]

Ya know, it's kind of interesting. I've been watching Detroit and Michigan in general for the last two years or so. The one small glimmering light in a crash-and-burn like Detroit has experienced is that there's almost a clean slate that can be worked with. It will be interesting to see what comes out of this.

I've said for a while that Kevyn Orr (or whatever his name is) would be wise to knock on the door of gun manufacturers who are ready to flee Massachusetts and Maryland and Colorado. I'm uncertain exactly how much executive power he has, but if I had been he and had the power, I would have just started condemning old factories that are still standing but abandoned, and I would have flown in people from Ruger and Springfield Armory and the like and I would have just presented them with these buildings with big red bows around them. It's an easy deal to revitalize the city: give these guys the building and the land, lock, stock, and barrel (no pun intended), tax-free for the next ten years, if only they will come in and either rehab the buildings into manufacturing facilities or else knock them down and build new, and bring with them jobs, either hiring locals or else bringing people from whence they came. Do the same with housing: basically just allow "homesteading" for anyone who is willing to come to an abandoned house inside the city limits and either restore the place or else knock it down and start over.

Same goes for any other manufacturing that could be open to being persuaded, as well as any transportation industries that could be persuaded. The infrastructure is already there; all that's really needed is people and jobs for them to fill.

In the meantime, I'd put up signs on every city block within the city limits telling everyone who enters the city that while Detroit's police force is depleted and overworked, it is now mandatory that everyone over 18 in the city limits who is not a felon and is not mentally deficient is required to carry a gun. Crime will plummet, jobs will soar, there would be a twenty-year growth spurt in construction, and people will flock to the place for their opportunity for starting anew in a brand new, infantile market that will grow.


Anyway, that's my personal fantasy. It'll be interesting to see what happens with the place. They have a tremendous opportunity, if only they will take it.

You don't want to demand that people carry. There are some people out there too nervous and too uptight to be carrying a gun. I'd rather those people stay away from one.