For eight years I found myself disagreeing with decisions made by
President Obama. But I felt I disagreed on content. He did his best
to support his positions with the facts as he saw them.
But with President Trump, it is not that I disagree simply on content,
I actually cannot trust the man to be telling the truth. When I am
unable to trust what he says, how can I make a decision as to whether
or not he has a valid position on an issue.
Carl Jarvis
On 2/19/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Cole writes: "Trump made up another alleged terrorist attack at his rally
on
Saturday, this one about a figment of his imagination that did not actually
take place in Sweden on Friday night."
Donald Trump's Florida rally. (photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
<http://www.juancole.com/2017/02/invents-sweden-immigrant.html>
Trump Invents Sweden Terror Attack, Lies About Immigrant Crime
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment
19 February 17
Trump made up another alleged terrorist attack at his rally on Saturday,
this one about a figment of his imagination that did not actually take
place
in Sweden on Friday night.
It is clear that Trump and his white supremacist mafia (Steve Bannon et
al.)
despise Sweden and Germany for having taken in more than their fair of
refugees since the crisis began. Trump and his henchmen see refugees and
immigrants as inherently dangerous.
This allegation is not true. In fact, in some places immigrants appear
actually to cause the local crime rate to fall! A scientific study of crime
and immigration in Canada found that immigrants are less likely to commit
crimes than the native-born. Haimin Zhang
<http://www.clsrn.econ.ubc.ca/workingpapers/CLSRN%20Working%20Paper%20no.%20
135%20-%20Zhang.pdf> of the University of British Columbia writes,
not only do immigrants themselves commit less crimes, they can reduce the
crime rates in the long run through channels such as changing the
neighbourhood characteristics or impacting the behaviour of natives."
The same effect can be seen in the United States. Walter Ewing and his
colleagues
<https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/criminalization-immigra
tion-united-states> point out,
"Between 1990 and 2013, the foreign-born share of the U.S. population grew
from 7.9 percent to 13.1 percent and the number of unauthorized immigrants
more than tripled from 3.5 million to 11.2 million. During the same period,
FBI data indicate that the violent crime rate declined 48 percent --which
included falling rates of aggravated assault, robbery, rape, and murder.
Likewise, the property crime rate fell 41 percent, including declining
rates
of motor vehicle theft, larceny/robbery, and burglary. According to an
original analysis of data from the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS)
conducted by the authors of this report, roughly 1.6 percent of immigrant
males age 18-39 are incarcerated, compared to 3.3 percent of the
native-born. This disparity in incarceration rates has existed for
decades."
In countries where this effect cannot be seen, i.e. where immigrants do not
reduce the crime rate, it is because of the class of immigrants admitted.
The US mostly lets in fairly high-skilled immigrants. As for the
undocumented, who tend to do menial labor, they are careful not to commit
crimes on the whole because they don't want to be sent back. A tiny number
of gang members who are confident that their gang will bring them back if
they are deported casts a shadow over millions of people. But only because
we let the far right dominate this discourse.
Ironically, it is precisely people like Donald Trump's grandfather
Frederick
who are responsible for some minor problems in Sweden. Frederick at least
allowed prostitution
<http://www.snopes.com/donald-trump-grandfather-prostitution/> in his gold
rush hotels, and indeed the prospect of a crackdown on that trade along
with
other law enforcement actions caused him to try to go back to Germany (the
German government did not want him).
Moreover, it should be noted that a lot of the refugees taken in by Sweden
are from Afghanistan and Iraq. That is, they are fleeing conditions created
by the United States in their countries. So actually it should have been
the
US who took them, not Sweden. The United States is responsible for the
displacement of 4 million Iraqis out of 32 million, or over 12% of the
population. The US did not displace all of them directly, but its invasion,
overthrow of the government, and abolition of the army did lead to these
millions losing their homes and being forced to try to find some other
place
to live. This would be like 40 million Americans being made homeless, a
little more than the combined population of Texas and Georgia.
As for Europe, since all human populations have a certain crime rate, if
you
let in more people, you are letting in more crime. But the real question is
relative. Compared to how many people you let in, is the crime rate out of
the ordinary? We have seen that in Canada and the US, it is lower than
ordinary.
In Germany, Heather Horn of The Atlantic
<https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/04/refugees-crime-ru
mors/480171/> points out, "Although the number of refugees in the country
increased by 440 percent between 2014 and 2015, the number of crimes
committed by refugees only increased by 79 percent. (The number of crimes
against refugees increased as well.)" Sexual offenses are less than 1%,
despite the wild allegations of the far right.
As for refugee rape
<http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/swedens-rape-crisis-isnt-what-it-see
ms/article30019623/> in Sweden, Doug Saunders at the Globe and Mail quoted
an actual academic who actually studies these things: ""What we're hearing
is a very, very extreme exaggeration based on a few isolated events, and
the
claim that it's related to immigration is more or less not true at all,"
says Jerzy Sarnecki, a criminologist at Stockholm University who has
devoted
his career to the study of criminality, ethnicity and age."
Swedes are extremely feminist and define all sorts of things as rape
(taking
off a condom during sex without informing one's partner e.g.) as rape that
would not be considered rape in other countries.
To any extent that refugees in Sweden commit petty crime, they do so at the
same rate as other people of their social class. A study cited by Saunders
shows that 75% of the difference between native and foreign-born crime
rates
is accounted for by where people live and how much they make. He adds,
"Among the Swedish-born children of immigrants, the crime rate falls in
half
(and is almost entirely concentrated in lesser property crimes) and is
100-per-cent attributable to class - they are no more likely to commit
crimes, including rape, than ethnic Swedes of the same family income."
Saunders also points out that where rapes do occur, the victims also tend
to
be immigrants, so the lurid picture painted by Neonazis and Islamophobes of
white women assaulted by brown men is a fiction.
In fact, a widely reported, premeditated gang rape in Germany attributed to
Muslim immigrants never happened. I wrote Friday, " There was, for
instance,
the fake news
<http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/12/11/cologne-police-ignored-new-years
-eve-migrant-rape-emergency-calls/> about the alleged Muslim immigrant mass
rapes in Cologne a little over a year ago. Breitbart beat the drums for it,
but the the story was not true
<http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/cologne-sex-assaults-muslim-rape-myths-
fit-a-neo-nazi-agenda-a6872566.html> . Or then there was the phony story
about Muslims burning a church in Germany, also played up by Breitbart and
also not true
<http://www.juancole.com/2017/01/democratic-islamophobic-breitbart.html> .
Trump is deeply influenced by Bannon's insane conspiracy theories; if you
want to know why he keeps saying false and/or unbalanced things, consider
that he gets his news from alt-Neonazi toilet paper like Breitbart."
<http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize>
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Donald Trump's Florida rally. (photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
http://www.juancole.com/2017/02/invents-sweden-immigrant.htmlhttp://www.juan
cole.com/2017/02/invents-sweden-immigrant.html
Trump Invents Sweden Terror Attack, Lies About Immigrant Crime
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment
19 February 17
rump made up another alleged terrorist attack at his rally on Saturday,
this
one about a figment of his imagination that did not actually take place in
Sweden on Friday night.
It is clear that Trump and his white supremacist mafia (Steve Bannon et
al.)
despise Sweden and Germany for having taken in more than their fair of
refugees since the crisis began. Trump and his henchmen see refugees and
immigrants as inherently dangerous.
This allegation is not true. In fact, in some places immigrants appear
actually to cause the local crime rate to fall! A scientific study of crime
and immigration in Canada found that immigrants are less likely to commit
crimes than the native-born. Haimin Zhang
<http://www.clsrn.econ.ubc.ca/workingpapers/CLSRN%20Working%20Paper%20no.%20
135%20-%20Zhang.pdf> of the University of British Columbia writes,
not only do immigrants themselves commit less crimes, they can reduce the
crime rates in the long run through channels such as changing the
neighbourhood characteristics or impacting the behaviour of natives."
The same effect can be seen in the United States. Walter Ewing and his
colleagues
<https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/criminalization-immigra
tion-united-states> point out,
"Between 1990 and 2013, the foreign-born share of the U.S. population grew
from 7.9 percent to 13.1 percent and the number of unauthorized immigrants
more than tripled from 3.5 million to 11.2 million. During the same period,
FBI data indicate that the violent crime rate declined 48 percent --which
included falling rates of aggravated assault, robbery, rape, and murder.
Likewise, the property crime rate fell 41 percent, including declining
rates
of motor vehicle theft, larceny/robbery, and burglary. According to an
original analysis of data from the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS)
conducted by the authors of this report, roughly 1.6 percent of immigrant
males age 18-39 are incarcerated, compared to 3.3 percent of the
native-born. This disparity in incarceration rates has existed for
decades."
In countries where this effect cannot be seen, i.e. where immigrants do not
reduce the crime rate, it is because of the class of immigrants admitted.
The US mostly lets in fairly high-skilled immigrants. As for the
undocumented, who tend to do menial labor, they are careful not to commit
crimes on the whole because they don't want to be sent back. A tiny number
of gang members who are confident that their gang will bring them back if
they are deported casts a shadow over millions of people. But only because
we let the far right dominate this discourse.
Ironically, it is precisely people like Donald Trump's grandfather
Frederick
who are responsible for some minor problems in Sweden. Frederick at least
allowed prostitution
<http://www.snopes.com/donald-trump-grandfather-prostitution/> in his gold
rush hotels, and indeed the prospect of a crackdown on that trade along
with
other law enforcement actions caused him to try to go back to Germany (the
German government did not want him).
Moreover, it should be noted that a lot of the refugees taken in by Sweden
are from Afghanistan and Iraq. That is, they are fleeing conditions created
by the United States in their countries. So actually it should have been
the
US who took them, not Sweden. The United States is responsible for the
displacement of 4 million Iraqis out of 32 million, or over 12% of the
population. The US did not displace all of them directly, but its invasion,
overthrow of the government, and abolition of the army did lead to these
millions losing their homes and being forced to try to find some other
place
to live. This would be like 40 million Americans being made homeless, a
little more than the combined population of Texas and Georgia.
As for Europe, since all human populations have a certain crime rate, if
you
let in more people, you are letting in more crime. But the real question is
relative. Compared to how many people you let in, is the crime rate out of
the ordinary? We have seen that in Canada and the US, it is lower than
ordinary.
In Germany, Heather Horn of The Atlantic
<https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/04/refugees-crime-ru
mors/480171/> points out, "Although the number of refugees in the country
increased by 440 percent between 2014 and 2015, the number of crimes
committed by refugees only increased by 79 percent. (The number of crimes
against refugees increased as well.)" Sexual offenses are less than 1%,
despite the wild allegations of the far right.
As for refugee rape
<http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/swedens-rape-crisis-isnt-what-it-see
ms/article30019623/> in Sweden, Doug Saunders at the Globe and Mail quoted
an actual academic who actually studies these things: ""What we're hearing
is a very, very extreme exaggeration based on a few isolated events, and
the
claim that it's related to immigration is more or less not true at all,"
says Jerzy Sarnecki, a criminologist at Stockholm University who has
devoted
his career to the study of criminality, ethnicity and age."
Swedes are extremely feminist and define all sorts of things as rape
(taking
off a condom during sex without informing one's partner e.g.) as rape that
would not be considered rape in other countries.
To any extent that refugees in Sweden commit petty crime, they do so at the
same rate as other people of their social class. A study cited by Saunders
shows that 75% of the difference between native and foreign-born crime
rates
is accounted for by where people live and how much they make. He adds,
"Among the Swedish-born children of immigrants, the crime rate falls in
half
(and is almost entirely concentrated in lesser property crimes) and is
100-per-cent attributable to class - they are no more likely to commit
crimes, including rape, than ethnic Swedes of the same family income."
Saunders also points out that where rapes do occur, the victims also tend
to
be immigrants, so the lurid picture painted by Neonazis and Islamophobes of
white women assaulted by brown men is a fiction.
In fact, a widely reported, premeditated gang rape in Germany attributed to
Muslim immigrants never happened. I wrote Friday, " There was, for
instance,
the fake news
<http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/12/11/cologne-police-ignored-new-years
-eve-migrant-rape-emergency-calls/> about the alleged Muslim immigrant mass
rapes in Cologne a little over a year ago. Breitbart beat the drums for it,
but the the story was not true
<http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/cologne-sex-assaults-muslim-rape-myths-
fit-a-neo-nazi-agenda-a6872566.html> . Or then there was the phony story
about Muslims burning a church in Germany, also played up by Breitbart and
also not true
<http://www.juancole.com/2017/01/democratic-islamophobic-breitbart.html> .
Trump is deeply influenced by Bannon's insane conspiracy theories; if you
want to know why he keeps saying false and/or unbalanced things, consider
that he gets his news from alt-Neonazi toilet paper like Breitbart."
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socializehttp://e-max.it/posizioname
nto-siti-web/socialize
