"The picture painted of America's southwestern border with Mexico is a bloody one, in which the drug violence decimating northern Mexico has spilled onto U.S. soil and turned the region into a war zone."
Thus begins an article recently appearing in USA Today.
What first appeared to be another article covering the swelling, out-of-control lawlessness and violence in towns close to the Mexico border, actually turned out to be a report by USA Today in which they analyzed actual crime data covering a 10 year period (1999-2009) from 1600 local law enforcement agencies across the 4 states bordering Mexico. And the story the data told were very different from what almost everyone expected. The data show that crime rates in towns both big and small that are within 50 or 100 miles of the Mexico border actually have lower crime rates than their state average! Check out the article for the details.
The perception of an environment riddled with drug-fueled smuggling, violence, and other crimes has been the impetus for the expenditure of millions on hiring hundreds of more border agents, fortifying fences, passing the controversial and arguably unconstitutional laws such as the one in Arizona making it legal for police to stop, question and search anyone they happen across who they believe may be in the U.S. illegally.
But the evidence tells a different story. As Galileo put it after being forced to recant his proposal that the earth revolves around the sun: E pur si muove, "and yet it moves".
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