Think we've got problems?

In an interesting juxtaposition to the decreasing US crime rate, and the increasing Minneapolis violent crime rate (see bottom of this post), our friends in Britain are experiencing ever-increasing crime levels. For an area that relies heavily on tourism, the UK cannot sustain this trend for long.

Jim Kouri, of MichNews.com reports: "Immigration Woes: Europe's Crime Rate Rises; US Rate Declines".

While most Americans are witnessing dramatic decreases in violent and property crime, our friends and allies across the pond in Britain are experiencing alarming increases. In a recent British news article, the writer lamented the loss of British citizens who have fled the United Kingdom and moved to Australia or the United States. They estimate that over a quarter-million Britons leave the British Isles each year.

Last year alone over 324,000 Brits left for greener pastures in the US and Australia. However, Britain's population continues to grow with massive immigration and their higher birthrate. Brit flight -- coupled with a lower birth rate among Britons -- will almost certainly accelerate a change in demographics.

This paradigm is not exclusive to Britain. Rambix has reported extensively on the Muslim riots in France; similar dynamics are at work across the UK and Europe. By no means are all Muslims bad, but the unassimilated (by choice) Muslim population contributes to the current lion's share of the problems.

The newspaper, The Independent, quoted one businessman who complained that crime and immigration -- mostly from the Middle East and North Africa -- are out of control. With this increase in immigrants -- legal and illegal -- came an increase in crime, violence and civil unrest. The businessman moved to Australia.

Remember that Britain has banned privately owned firearms, and has criminal statutes that favor the perpetrator, thus discouraging self-defense. Criminals know this, of course, and are emboldened.

The International Crime Victims Survey, based on 34,000 telephone interviews across 17 countries, found that 26 percent of people -- more than one in four -- in England and Wales had been victims of crime. The figure for Scotland was 23 percent and in Northern Ireland 15 percent. The United States had a 21 percent crime victimization rate.
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And what has been the British government's reaction? There are suspicions that crime reports are being manipulated to cover-up the increased dangers to public safety.

People grow tired of being victims after awhile, and will demand justice and reform, which will likely involve throwing weak-kneed politicians out on their ears.

Recently, Britain's senior police officers claimed mass immigration has created a whole new range of crimes threatening to overwhelm towns and cities across the country.

Chris Fox, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), claims that the mass movement of people around the world had brought new levels of organized crime, with drug dealing, gun offenses, prostitution and kidnapping.

Claiming the numbers of asylum seekers coming to Britain had reached "tidal wave" proportions, Fox said, "Mass migration has brought with it a whole new range and a whole new type of crime, from the Nigerian fraudster, to the eastern European who deals in drugs and prostitution to the Jamaican concentration on drug dealing."

Liberals will tell us that immigrants are industrious and law-abiding. Many are, of course, but many are social rejects and criminals who are looking for new unlawful opportunities.

While overall crime in Europe is rising, the liberal-left in American continues to deceptively use the myth of low crime in Britain, France and other countries in order to disarm US gunowners, embarrass US law enforcement, and claim socialist programs will reduce crime in the United States.

They will argue we should seek to duplicate Europe's strategies for combating poverty, drug addiction, crime and violence. Well, we should just tell our friends on the left, "No thanks, we're doing fine without your help."

While the US national trend is opposite of that in the UK, the trend in Minneapolis mirrors the UK. It would be intersting to know what percentage of Minneapolis crimes are committed by unassimilated immigrants, legal and illegal.

Let's take a brief look at how Minneapolis is faring under it's liberal leadership.

Select crime rate comparison from the FBI Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report January-June 2005:

MINNEAPOLIS MN 2004 2,065/2005 2,782 [35% increase]

OAKLAND CA 2004 2,746/2005 2,564 [decrease]

MIAMI FL 2004 3,240/2005 2,972 [approx. 19% increase]

NEW YORK1 NY 2004 26,683/2005 25,932 [decrease]

SAN DIEGO CA 2004 3,530/2005 3,219 [decrease]

The selected cities mirror the national trend, which is a downward departure in violent crime rates. Stunning are the numbers from Minneapolis, which are not only inverse from the national trend, but reveal a shocking 35% increase from 2004 to 2005.

Our "leaders" have failed us, much like they have in Britain.

What say you Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, and Minneapolis Police chief William McManus?