"Doug Miller" wrote in message
...
In article , "Ed Huntress"
wrote:

"Doug Miller" wrote in message
. net...
In article , "Ed Huntress"
wrote:

"Doug Miller" wrote in message
...
In article , "Ed Huntress"
wrote:

That's fine. Now, if he's so good to have around, why did he have to
call
the police 42 times and *still* have to shoot and kill two criminals
who
broke in? How much use is *that*? How much safer are you because he's
there?

Two fewer thieves in the world because of him, obviously. Works for
me.

And that's all you're going to get out of it, Doug, a little thrill.
Because
killing two burglars in a city that had 21,653 of them last year tells
us
that all that will happen is that some gun-totin' folks who live in
fantasyland will get their rocks off when they watch the evening news.

[snip]

There's an inconvenient truth for ya', huh?

Speaking of an inconvenient truth... was that 21,653 burglars? Or 21,653
burglarIES? If, as I imagine, it's really the latter, it's highly
doubtful
that the actual number of burglars in Dallas is anywhere near that
high --
and
quite possibly low enough that removing just two of them could make a
noticeable difference.

That's burglaries, reported and recorded.

As I thought. BurglarIES, not burglars.

Yeah, Doug. I'm sure removing
those two will make a noticeable difference. g Keep a sharp eye on the
Dallas burglary rate. With those two guys out of the picture, you'll
doubtless see a big drop in the numbers....[music up, theme to "The
Twilight
Zone"...]


Get a clue, Ed. How many burglaries do you think the average burglar
commits
in a year? One? Two? Please note, too, that "doubtless" and "big drop" are
*your* words, not mine. I said "quite possibly" and "noticeable
difference."

Dig up a few more statistics: of those 21,653 burglaries, what percentage
were
solved? And how many people were arrested? That should give you a pretty
good
idea of how many people are actually involved -- and it isn't gonna be
anywhere *near* twenty-one thousand.

In Texas, as in most of the country, only 13% of burglaries are ever solved
("cleared"). That gives you some pretty questionable stats, if you're trying
to figure out how many burglars were involved.

From FBI stats of a couple of years ago, the number of burglaries cleared in
Dallas is somewhere around 3,990. The number of burglary arrests is just
under 1,700. So looking at it the way you suggest, you get about 2.4
burglaries cleared per arrest made. Projecting to Dallas's total number of
burglaries (a little over 23,000), it would mean you have around 9,600
burglars.

The actual number of burglars, therefore, must fall somewhere between 1,700
and 9,600. Let's be generous and say that the 1,700 arrested committed all
of the burglaries (I guess that would also mean you have no more burglaries,
'cause all the burglars have been arrested g). If that unlikely event were
true, the two burglars killed represent 0.001 of the burglars in Dallas. If
the 9,600 is closer to the actual number, they represent 0.0002 of the
burglars in Dallas. If you can notice *either* of those differences, you
have very good detectors indeed.

The moral of the story is, there's no way to wiggle out of the fact that
your two dead burglars aren't going to help your crime situation. While we
were talking 3 more probably took up burglary for a career.

--
Ed Huntress