>Those are some appalling stories, but my intuition is that economic stress has been driving the crime uptick. If we were seeing a broad-based rise in crime th

>Those are some appalling stories, but my intuition is that economic stress has been driving the crime uptick. If we were seeing a broad-based rise in crime this point might be salient, but that isn't what is happening. The overwhelming majority of serious crime is committed by a very small portion of the population. Our refusal to deal with the fact and remove the small minority of people who repeatedly commit violent crimes is what is driving this crisis. Here in New York we are seeing the same relatively small group of people being arrested (and instantly released) over and over again. The attempted solution has been waving a finger in the air about "inequity" and "economic stress". Anyone caught with an illegal gun should be dealt with severely. Anyone caught repeatedly with an illegal gun should be locked up for a long time. The refusal of our politicians to deal with the crime issue in a measured and sane way is going to lead to an inevitable blowback by people who are tired of getting victimized and will be willing to support anyone willing to make the streets safe, no matter how bad they may be - which is something we should all want to avoid.