Here are some alarming stats from ojjdp.gov:
Of the over seven million arrests made per year in the USA, only 6% are for violent crimes.
Yes, that means 94% of the over seven million arrests are for non-violent crimes.
In fact, over half of a million arrests (over 500,000!) are for marijuana alone. That's just for marijuana. And that's only per year, so in two years it's a million people arrested for marijuana. In ten years, it's five million people arrested for marijuana alone.
The total number of arrests for all non-violent crimes combined is 7,170,930.
That's right. Out of the 7,632,470 arrests made each year, 7,170,930 are for non-violent crimes.
By the police's own stats and charges, violent crime arrests is just a teeny tiny fraction of all arrests, let alone all crime.
But guess what? It gets even worse. Because even when we drill down on that tiny fraction of 6% of arrests that are for violent crimes, they get revealed as often silly or outright false, meaning the accused is innocent.
For an example of the false, you can simply take a look at Project Innocence's data. Based on a meta analysis of various studies, they estimate that between 2.3% and 10% of all prisoners in the USA are actually innocent. They have used DNA evidence to exonerate thousands of convicted pseudo-criminals.
For an example of the silly, John Oliver did a great, informative, and hilarious piece on school police, in which he reports about how school officers arrest more than 54,000 students per year. He includes reports about children being charged with assault for things such as throwing a paper airplane. He reports about a five-year-old with ADHD who had a tantrum and was charged with battery on a police officer.
When we drill down on that teeny tiny fraction of arrests that are even purportedly for "violent crimes" such as "battery on a police officer", think of that 5-year-old kid.
Even the measly 6% of arrests that are allegedly for violent crime often really aren't, or at least aren't what you'd often imagine.
Maybe it's just a 5-year-old throwing a tantrum. Maybe it's someone who had some marijuana and then gets accused of very slightly resisting arrest. Plenty of extremely peaceful pacifists get accused of and charged with crimes that are technically "violent crimes" on paper. So even that 6% is less than it seems.
The victims of real violent victimization such as murder and rape are some of the ones hurt most by this. Imagine if all those resources put towards arresting millions of peaceful people for non-violent crimes like marijuana possession was instead put towards real violent crime like murder and rape. The stats don't lie. If the time, energy, and resources put towards the 94% of arrests for non-violent crimes was instead put towards real violent victimization like murder and rape, then that would mean nearly 10 times as much time, energy, and resources would be put towards real violent victimization like murder and rape.
But, of course, these things are inefficient and ineffective by design. It's a feature, not a bug. What's waste to taxpayers is profit to those receiving the checks. What's a solution to a problem for citizens is instead the loss of an excuse to those profiting from the money being thrown at a problem. Problems are profitable for bureaucrats, lobbyists, and industrial complexes. Solving problems isn't. If you want more poverty, start a government war on poverty. If you want more of anything, just start an expensive government war on it.
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About the Author: Eckhart Aurelius Hughes is the author of the book, In It Together: The Beautiful Struggle Uniting Us All.
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