Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Bob Herbert Is Worth Reading



This week. Here's a quote that should make you think:

Since Sept. 11, 2001, when the country's attention understandably turned to terrorism, nearly 120,000 Americans have been killed in nonterror homicides, most of them committed with guns. Think about it — 120,000 dead. That's nearly 25 times the number of Americans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But because we are used to the nonterror type of violence we don't get shocked over all those deaths. They have been happening a long time. Nothing to see here, move on please.

This familiarity-breeds-blindness aspect of crimes may also be the reason for the attention crimes committed by women get in the media. Women commit a small percentage of violent crimes, and this makes any violent crime with a female suspect newsworthy. But then the media focus might make us think that such crimes are more common than they really are.