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U.S. traffic deaths up during pandemic even though mileage down -data:
New data shows a sustained increase in U.S. traffic deaths that regulators ascribe to impaired driving, speeding, a failure to wear seats beats and other unsafe behavior since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Thursday estimated 8,730 people died in car crashes in the first three months of 2021, compared with 7,900 deaths during the same period last year.
That's a year-on-year increase of 10.5% despite a 2.1% drop in the number of miles driven, the preliminary data shows.
For all of 2020, U.S. traffic deaths rose 7.2% to 38,680, hitting the highest yearly total since 2007 - even though Americans drove 13% fewer miles. The early 2021 deaths were also the highest in a first quarter since 2007.
Acting NHTSA Administrator Steven Cliff said in a statement the agency was "working closely with our safety partners to address risky driving behaviors such as speeding, impaired driving, and failing to buckle up."
NHTSA said last year that one factor in the big jump in 2020 was that drivers who remained on roads after lockdowns engaged in riskier behavior.
Some experts said that as U.S. roads became less crowded, some motorists engaged in more unsafe behavior, including those who perceived police were less likely to issue tickets because of COVID-19.
In 2020, deaths involving motorists not wearing seat belts were up 15%, speeding related deaths jumped by 10% and fatal crashes involving alcohol rose 9%.
Data suggests a higher number of serious crashes last year involved drug or alcohol use than previously.
(Score: 1, Troll) by epitaxial on Tuesday September 07 2021, @12:42PM (7 children)
Mostly because the popo are butthurt that people aren't taking their shit anymore and want them held accountable for their actions. You know just like you or I would be if we shot or strangled someone. So they decided to be crybabies and intentionally stop doing their jobs. Go ahead and drive double the speed limit or quit stopping at red lights. They don't give a fuck.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday September 07 2021, @03:53PM (5 children)
That's not it at all.
There are people out there who like to drive around in dangerous ways because they think it's fun. They will do this regardless of police enforcement, and get away with it most of the time even if cops are trying to be on top of things. Traffic enforcement is usually pretty far down the police priority list, which has a lot to do with that usually being a violation worth a $100 fine maybe versus reports of burglaries, drug deals, domestic abuse, assaults, and occasionally murders. So what actually stops them isn't cops, but other cars in front of them.
Also, to add to the mix, in a lot of areas there are significant portions of the population that more-or-less believe that traffic crimes shouldn't be crimes, and thus the cops tend to look the other way.
So take away the responsible drivers who are just trying to get from point A to point B without any drama, and you leave the roads to the people who want to (as I've seen locally) take 45 mph roads at 70+ mph because they can.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Tuesday September 07 2021, @04:10PM (3 children)
Why not both? Around here, traffic enforcement is the primary duty of police officers; dealing with criminal activity is a tiny fraction. Traffic tickets pay, criminal charges don't. But police did announce they would reduce traffic stops for non safety critical vehicular offenses, after that time a guy was pulled over for tabs, got agitated, and the cop grabbed her sidearm instead of her taser. They seem to be pulling over plenty of speeders though, by what I see on the side of the road.
But yes, people got used to driving fast during lockdown, and as traffic has increased since, have maintained their habits.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday September 07 2021, @06:14PM (2 children)
I would think it depends a lot on the municipality. One cash-starved town I used to live near was notorious for making money from traffic tickets, whereas where I am now the department basically ignores traffic issues to keep up with more serious criminal calls and the local chief is clear that's where his priorities lie.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @10:04PM (1 child)
Bb..but stamping down on jaywalking and broken windows... solved all crime in NYC.
(Score: 2) by stretch611 on Tuesday September 07 2021, @11:50PM
And that is why Rudy Giuliani was America's top mayor and went on to become the president's best lawyer /s
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday September 07 2021, @07:14PM
I disagree, pretty strongly. A large part of what triggered the Ferguson riots was traffic enforcement. Cities such as Ferguson don't actually balance budgets, instead using the police department to generate revenue to keep things running. Naturally, a dishonest system that makes it's living by taking money from the citizenry will target those people who are most vulnerable, easiest to manipulate, etc. And, of course, targeting such people quite naturally leads to civil forfeiture opportunities.
Better to allow a murder case to go unsolved, than to see a reduction in revenues. Especially if the murder victim came from the wrong side of the tracks.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Tuesday September 07 2021, @11:49PM
You object when the police do their job ("their shit") and you object when the police aren't doing their job ("they decided to be crybabies and intentionally stop doing their jobs.") You gratuitously insult the police ("the popo").
You are complaining about the people who are the first line of defense against the collapse of civilization. You don't deserve the protection they provide, ever.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @12:53PM (53 children)
There are a variety of people (typically young) who need to get their fix of whatever brain chemical (e.g. Adrenaline) they desire. If you can't get it via unsafe sex or late night partying, you'll do it by other means like unsafe driving. I would suggest that volatility can be suppressed somewhere in our culture, but like a balloon, if you squeeze one part, another part expands or the balloon pops. Bad driving, riots, etc. are symptoms of volatility being suppressed elsewhere.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @01:15PM (35 children)
Democrats have decided we won't put "bad" people in jail anymore.
No arrests, no jail, the animals run wild.
(Score: 5, Touché) by DannyB on Tuesday September 07 2021, @02:09PM (21 children)
It wasn't Democrats that kept Joe Arpaio out of jail.
Why is it that when I hold a stick, everyone begins to look like a pinata?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @02:47PM (13 children)
OP Here. I'm going to try to respond to both your posts at once since I think they are related (the other here https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=44785&page=1&cid=1175301#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] ). I said riot in the most generic term, we are seeing vol suppression results both on the right and left. Even the GP's angry post is an example of that vol coming out. I don't recall the other site being this angry 10 or 20 years ago. Even this site is a example of a result of vol suppression (e.g. "fuck beta"). The entire "We're listening" was meant to make people feel better while the other site's owners did exactly what they wanted. Eventually the anger burst out and a new site was made. Responses to vol suppression can be good or bad, but really they are just unpredictable. This is perhaps more like what the elite are doing right now, be it dem or rep, and the other side is moving more to extremes. It also has to do with evolving paths, but that is off topic.
As for choosing other unsafe activities, we are like passenger pigeon who appear to like to mate in groups. Mating all alone, unwatched is simply not the same and thus they went extinct. I suspect (although I don't know) our species likes having others watch us do risky things (e.g. "Hold my beer", Facebook, America's funnies home videos, etc.). So lockdowns reduce vol optionality and reduce watching which reduces the chance of finding a mate. While risky driving isn't an ideal way of increasing danger and being watched, it can provide some level of both. This in particular applies to unmarried males below ~26, but it can apply to others.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday September 07 2021, @05:19PM (3 children)
vol?
Why is it that when I hold a stick, everyone begins to look like a pinata?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @06:02PM
vol = volatility
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday September 07 2021, @07:04PM (1 child)
Basically, he's talking about keeping the knobs down.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday September 07 2021, @08:21PM
The knobs will revolt and rise up! Riots with loud volume!
Why is it that when I hold a stick, everyone begins to look like a pinata?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Tuesday September 07 2021, @08:28PM (8 children)
10 or 20 years ago, I wasn't worried about the foundation of our democracy. About news networks (both sides) that openly spread lies. People who happily listen to them and obey.
I wasn't worried about a populace who cannot tell reality from fantasy or verifiable facts (not opinions) from lies.
I wasn't worried about domestic terrorists.
10 or 20 years ago, we could have spirited debates about public policy. Now we talk about secret Jewish space lasers or secret pedophile rings in the basement of DC pizza parlors. And outrageous lies about the election, that can be disproven with verifiable facts (see Dominion's / Smartmatics respective lawsuits) these lies are spread on national "news" networks.
It's a different time now. There is reason to worry. And speak out.
People said if Biden got elected we would fall into communism. We're dealing with people here who aren't playing with a full deck. But are quite serious.
Why is it that when I hold a stick, everyone begins to look like a pinata?
(Score: 1) by inactiveactivist on Tuesday September 07 2021, @09:16PM (6 children)
So, 10 or 20 years ago, you were less aware. Understood.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @09:36PM (5 children)
Ooh, new sock puppet account!
10 years ago republicans were flipping out over a black President and they got pretty blustery and invested in some stupid political conspiracies, but no one worried their neighbors might flip out and start shooting them. No one expected truly batshit insane conspiracy theories to gain traction, but idiots were convinced to believe crazier and crazier lies till their brains were so bleached that trump could doodle with his sharpie.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @10:10PM
20 years ago Republicans were worried about blowjobs and weed domestically, while sending 19 year olds to other countries to machine gun down funny looking brown people. The strong moral compass, you see.
(Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Wednesday September 08 2021, @12:13AM (2 children)
Most Republicans didn't give a damn about Obama's blackness. They cared about his hatred of America's best allies like Great Britain and his cozying up to murderous Islamic regimes. They cared about his socialistic health plan and other leftish programs. They cared about his stirring racial hatred when he should have been reducing it (remember the Harvard professor case and police acting "stupidly".)
Herman Cain and Ben Carson were both Republican contenders for the Presidency, and Republicans did not complain about their color. Bobby Jindal is hardly light-skinned, either.
The Democratic Party was founded in 1830 on race-based slavery, and their principles haven't changed. Obama was a fluke, whose suavity and extreme politics outweighed Democratic dislike of blacks.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 08 2021, @01:44AM
You might have had some points but then you put Trump in the White House. Now we all see your glaring hypocrisy.
Or are you able to admit that Trump is a criminal and a traitor that led an insurrection?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 08 2021, @03:59AM
Yes, they did. That is how we got Trump. White people pretty stupid, that way.
They also both never had a chance in hell of being the candidate, and Trump killed Cain with a .9999 certainly, just like he did John McCain. And don't get us started on the Uncle Tom black republicans, like Justice Thomas, D'inesh D'supposedto, Allan Keyes, Candace Owens with COVID-19, Allen West, and Michael Steele (but he quit).
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday September 08 2021, @01:45PM
New sock puppet accounts make me tingle with excitement!
Why is it that when I hold a stick, everyone begins to look like a pinata?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 08 2021, @01:14AM
Op one last time because these long detailed posts kill me. I appreciate your responses, so I'm going to try to give a set of bones to build a framework of thought around this. Suppression of vol is part of it. Differences in our individual thought bubbles is part of it. In fact, the fact I expected techies to know about vol from Bitcoin (a highly volatile asset) is an example of the bubble. Algorithms, optimized to keep us all in the bubble (in part because it hurts to have ideas that require you to rewrite your mind; see: https://sciencenorway.no/forskningno-norway-psychology/the-cost-of-changing-your-mind/1464181 [sciencenorway.no] ) are an element of it. It also has to do with wealth and age. In the past sans Biblical claims, few people lived much past 65. That isn't to say no one, but basically you worked then you died. A few people survived on, but they could be carried by the young. Now we have one of the largest elderly cohorts ever seen. Just as we have run out of the easiest resources to gather, when some perceive a threat via climate. Add to that the pressure of not being needed, and in particular the fact that the US dollar, by virtue of efforts in the 1970s to now has forced manufacturing outside the US. I just don't have time to get into trade dynamics, but suffice it to say the euro-dollar system (a term meaning US money used outside the US, not just Europe) is as large as the US economy, and that being the reserve currency, we have to either screw the world or screw our own workers. We could have gone more socialistic because of that system, but instead we sold out the workers for cheaper tennis shoes and a stronger stock market. (Aside: The problem today is if we went socialist without the heavy taxes, while the US dollar dormancy is ending, we may truly end up down a path a bit like the failed communist countries. We should have made that change 30-60 years ago.)
We have created a really complex world, yet we're just barely better than monkeys at solving problems of complexity. Most folks don't have the ability to process multiple systems at once and come up with a cohesive picture, particularly while working 40 hours a week, to say nothing of then doing any sort of advocacy of any particular solution. Worse yet, many of our processes are non-linear. You have a lily pad in a pond. It doubles in size every day. Fifty days later, the pond is half full and you think, I better cut that thing back. How long do you have? Answer: 1 day. You cut it back to 13% of the pond. How many days do you have before it is a problem again? A: 3. It's day fifty again with the lily's using 50% of the pond and you decide to 4x the size of the pond. How many days have you added? A: 2 days added. We are just as bad at probabilities. We are built for local tribes, not internet tribes. SN is genuinely interesting in that many of the same jack--er--wonderful people show up day in and day out to disagree with each other, yet I rarely see priors get updated. Runaway for example claimed loudly and proudly murders #1 cause of increase was caused by having less folks jailed ( https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=44785&page=1&cid=1175492#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] ). Based upon the data that seem unlikely, although not impossible. The fact that we disagree about the data isn't the interesting element, it is the self-assured manner of the claim. I'm not picking on Runaway and the fact that he generally is open to criticism is why I am willing to point it out and I think Runaway is one of the more reflective members here. I'm not flaming or criticizing him, just adding it to the point about the difficulty we have with probabilities--it is difficult to express a level of confidence in English and generally speaking we like people who are more confident, meaning modding will reinforce bad behavior.
I rarely write because I don't enjoy the fighting and my work is mostly around understanding society to predict where things are going. I thought I had a non-controversial variant perception here and thought it was worth seeing the response. I also write less because what you shout out gets banged in. I want flexible thinking with less sure comments, not minds that cannot be changed. All of those things are discouraged on nearly all sites. We've built an environment that is good for capital (e.g. websites built for engagement) but bad for democracy. The rise of AI, the rise of web 2.0, the rise of facebook are all elements, but it is also clear it started before that. The book Bowling Alone is pretty convincing. Marx speaking of the alienation of man from his work goes back a ways. The most recent fall of collectivism started in the 1960s in the US (with a new rise possibly starting this decade?). The rise of *ism as those who feared them (post WW2 people had doubts about those *isms) have mostly died off. There are many, many structural and psychological reasons to see logic in the current times. Where it will lead is much more difficult.
Let me leave you with a theory, a badly drawn out theory, which maybe "not even wrong." There are two scenarios I think are nearly equally likely, both based upon a sort of class warfare thinking. The players are: Young vs Old, Mega Rich vs Rich vs Middle & Working Poor vs Poor, Nationalist vs Internationalist. These folks are duking it out right now to create a valid voter base and it seems to me the way this will shake out is that the young will side with the nationalists because jobs and because the mega rich are mostly old and "screw the old". If grandma must pay more for pills made in America, who cares. The old will be mixed between nationalist and internationalist, with the mega rich on the internationalist side while the well to do tending towards nationalist. The middle and working poor hate the poor (sometimes called the Under class), which is to say, those who have a history like "3 generations of not working" or are mentally ill. The hate for the poor can be seen going back to the welfare queen, if not longer. The nationalists will try to tie themselves to the working poor, promising to bring back manufacturing. The internationalists will thus align themselves with the techies to threaten those working poor jobs via automation, be that threat real or not. Tech crosses borders easily and thus is internationalist. So is the "learn to code" movement. The Under class and Middle class are mostly unloved. The nationalists will move towards a style of fascism where the business community and the politicians tie together because we will be ignoring the international stage and business already owns the politicians, it is just a question of which group of businesses. The internationalists will have to pay the people off somehow, and if not with jobs it will be with free money like UBI. A sort of communism. I'm not saying this is a fast change, but it may slowly become true, one way or another or it may go the way of authoritarianism. I tend towards the internationalist camp in part because that gives more hope for escape, but was sad to see Trump lose because I think he would have done more harm to the nationalist's long term cause than Biden will do in the performance of the internationalist camp, which Biden is barely in. However, regardless of which camp you belong to, the belief by these angry shouters seems to be that the world will just change overnight and you're crazy to fight it. They may be right: https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/802014 [illinois.edu]
I literally don't know how folks have the energy to shout shit and come up with shill accounts, when it takes such serious work to even understand the world, but this is my best summary effort.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @05:29PM (6 children)
WHATABOUTISM WHATABOUTISM WHATABOUTISM
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @05:55PM (4 children)
While true we first need citations for the statement that "animals" are getting away with crime, but then it is important that any conservative complaining about crime address why they are comfortable letting pedos and people like Arpaio get off free.
Whataboutism would be a better accusation if it was being used to distract from a specific case. In response to a nebulous pretty bullshit statement it is a valid point. All you'd have to say is "yeah, fuck him he should be in prison too!" Whataboutism handled, and you could continue on your rant about white boy trust fund animals raping and murdering without consequence!
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @07:18PM (3 children)
Fuck you and your fixation on Arpaio.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @09:28PM (1 child)
What fixation? It was one example and you lost your shit. Should we trot out the other 999,999 times Republicans have turned a blind eye to pedophiles, racists, and murderers because they're "hurting the right people"? Must be sad to live an existence where someone criticizing a corrupt racist criminal ex-sheriff shatters your feefees.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @10:14PM
To be fair, Dennis Hastert and all those others [advocate.com] happened a long time ago so we shouldn't bring them up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 08 2021, @04:05AM
He sure does have a purty mouth! What prison did you say he be in?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday September 07 2021, @08:31PM
If you read what I wrote, it was a direct answer. Not a distraction. It was to the point.
Why is it that when I hold a stick, everyone begins to look like a pinata?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Tork on Tuesday September 07 2021, @03:51PM (12 children)
I doubt it's a coincidence you only speak in sound-bites.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @05:58PM (11 children)
You have no ground to criticize on that front.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @09:12PM (10 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @09:21PM (9 children)
OR, I have read enough posts by Tork to know that everything that comes out of his keyboard is either a lame joke or propaganda.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @09:25PM (4 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @09:39PM (3 children)
Which actions would those be?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @09:59PM (2 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @10:47PM (1 child)
Please, remind me which post that would be.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @11:06PM
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @09:31PM (3 children)
AKA: waaaah waaaah someone called me out and all I can do is yell about Hillary's emails! What about Ben Gauzee? Will no one think of my poor intellect??
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @09:46PM (2 children)
You're even worse than Tork, Danny.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @09:47PM
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 08 2021, @01:49AM
If you don't want ridiculous mockery then make better posts. When you merely complain about people not accepting your content-free narrative you won't get much better in return.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday September 07 2021, @02:10PM (2 children)
How about something unsafe, but more constructive and productive such as unsafe TV watching?
Or unsafe book reading?
Why is it that when I hold a stick, everyone begins to look like a pinata?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday September 07 2021, @04:11PM
These mind tricks only work on the weak minded.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 08 2021, @08:42PM
I'm betting you really don't want people reading unsafe books.
That is a meme floating around, how to identify if your child is becoming a dangerous extremist. They don't party, they lift, they read old books.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday September 07 2021, @03:57PM (13 children)
Some of that is undoubtedly true. However, there are ways to channel that volatility towards activities that don't risk anybody else's life, e.g. mountain biking. Sometimes you can even channel that towards something that is useful, like firefighting.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @04:26PM (12 children)
OP again. It isn't like personal preference, talent and availability don't play a part. Getting into a gun battle over drugs could be a source of vol too, but that requires you having a source of drugs and a gun. (Off topic aside, murder rates are up for the first time in decades as well.) Mountain biking requires you to have mountains (or at least areas with a thrilling ride), a bike and the ability to ride far enough to get a thrill. As best I understand it, not everyone gets a runners high, which also means just plain old biking is not always enough. I'm not trying to document an exhaustive list of pressures or reasons why this response is reasonable, just simply saying that vol suppression leads to vol elsewhere. Where the vol goes (mountain biking vs crazy driving) varies on so many factors it isn't really possible to model in a forum that moves on to the next post in a matter of hours or at most days.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @05:35PM (5 children)
What the freakin' blue blazes are you trying to say? Could you please define your jargon for us?
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @06:13PM (4 children)
vol = volatility, a word used in multiple posts above. I thought it would be clear by context, but clearly not.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Farmer Tim on Tuesday September 07 2021, @10:06PM (2 children)
Came for the news, stayed for the soap opera.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @10:16PM
covfefe to you, Sir.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @11:41PM
I get it, however, I sort of expect the word vol had entered the collective "tech" (a word to describe a group of people into computing) conscious with the rise of bitcoin. Vol (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vol ) is a common reference in finance for the volatility of a asset. Bitcoin is or crypto (a term to describe a set of algorithms and data which are claimed to create a supply of something claimed to be something akin to currency) been the king of volatility. It was a bad assumption on my part, but I don't think it was completely unreasonable to assume tech people might have run into it. Maybe SN (Soylent news) has moved away enough from tech to just not be as hard core as it once was. In this case it is clear IDK (I don't know, because maybe you're just new to the internet) what others have or haven't learned in recent years, given the sort of bubble we are in.
(Score: 2) by DeVilla on Friday September 10 2021, @03:58PM
Thanks for showing the problem with not saying what you mean. Further up the question "what's vol" came up and the authoritative answer given was "volume" and I believe it was accompanied with a snide comment about the dial on grampa's stereo.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday September 07 2021, @07:25PM (5 children)
There seem to be a number of reasons for the murder rate spiking. #1 among them, jails have been mostly emptied, and many prisons have been mostly emptied. That emptying would seem to be a good thing, overall, but it was done pretty indiscriminately. If you search news stories over the past year and a half, you can find people who were arrested for violent crimes involving guns, who were released on their own recognizence, only to commit another similar crime, then be released again, then ultimately succeed in murdering someone.
America shouldn't be the leading nation on earth when it comes to incarcerating it's citizens - but dangerous people shouldn't be released to commit more crimes, either. Dangerous people should remain locked up, and to hell with COVID risks. They should have thought of that before they started shooting at people.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @07:41PM (4 children)
Was there an article in SN about the jails being specifically emptied? I've not seen such a claim, but I may have simply missed it. Citation please for my education.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday September 07 2021, @07:55PM (3 children)
First four hits from a search:
https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2021-06-07/jails-emptied-in-the-pandemic-should-they-stay-that-way [usnews.com]
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/virus/virusresponse.html [prisonpolicy.org]
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/15/covid-is-ravaging-american-jails-and-prisons-and-inmates-are-rightly-rising-up [theguardian.com]
https://www.news10.com/news/ny-news/jails-emptied-in-the-pandemic-should-they-stay-that-way/ [news10.com]
Again, I stress that I disapprove of locking up every petty criminal in the country for years, or decades. My complaint is, dangerous people were released along with petty criminals. And, a lot of police departments seem to be very hands-off in dealing with such criminals now. Petty thiefs are dealt with too harshly, and genuinely dangerous people are dealt with too leniently - we need to strike a more sensible balance.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @08:56PM (2 children)
Thank you. For glancing at the articles it appears the general conclusion can be summarized by one of the articles cited: "We published a short report showing that prison population cuts since the beginning of the pandemic are mostly due to states reducing prison admissions — not releasing people. And while reductions in admissions help slow down the virus in prisons themselves, they also cause jails — where people are held after being sentenced — to see populations go up." It seems like this is yet another "supply chain" bottle neck not a significant reduction in prison population. Certainly not enough to explain the estimated 25% increase in murder rates.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @09:01PM (1 child)
A correction for you: people are held in jails before being sentenced as well as after. If you don't have money for bail (or bail is denied), you will be in jail until sentencing, after which you will either stay there, get moved to another jail/prison, or be released.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @11:45PM
I'm not sure if you're being pedantic or not. When I said prison, I was meaning the generic concept of being held against one's own will in a legal manner, not the more technical term. I'm not sure if there is a single word that describes that generic concept. The quote I cited clearly was making a distinction and thus I do accept it would create syntactic confusion and I appreciate it being brought up. That being said, I don't think there is a clear way that 25% of murders could be tied to those who are temporarily let out of jail along with a few let out of prison. I'm open to evidence to the contrary, but the links above are not it. Hopefully I've clarified my response.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Opportunist on Tuesday September 07 2021, @12:54PM (12 children)
I mean, it's kinda hard to get into a lethal accident if the top speed is like 5 mph.
(Score: 3, Informative) by canopic jug on Tuesday September 07 2021, @01:17PM (7 children)
Not in this case. Participating in a traffic jam carries a higher risk of injury and property damage than being in a smoothly flowing route. With all the stopping and starting, a lot of people get slammed into when the driver behind them watches the adjacent lanes and then accelerates in pace with them while not noticing that their own lane has stopped. Whiplash is the least possible outcome there.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @02:39PM (2 children)
Let me quote the parent again
(Score: 2, Redundant) by canopic jug on Tuesday September 07 2021, @02:59PM (1 child)
<sarcasm>Well then, everything is 100% fine for the rest of the life if it wasn't fatal.</sarcasm>
Thinking about it more, the amount of people crippled and maimed by car drivers annually is probably quite high. Many countries spend %3 of their GDP on the fallout from car crashes [who.int]. In the US alone, over 38k were killed by people driving cars [nhtsa.gov]. The non-fatal accidents have got to be one or two order of magnitudes more common. Even the CDC [cdc.gov] appears to focus only on the fatal incidents, so I bet the cost of the non-fatal injuries is so large that the various administrations past and present have been willing to have much light on.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday September 07 2021, @04:09PM
The USA has this weird thing where in the face of problems that kill and maim-for-life people every single day, we just ignore them. Whether it's car crashes, shooting people, or disease, lots of Americans are determined to do absolutely nothing about it.
This is true even when the fix is relatively simple: For instance, growing up I witnessed a few accidents on the corner right outside my front door in relatively short succession, all of which were 2 cars coming from the same 2 directions, and it was teenager me who took the time to notice that what had happened was tree foliage had made it impossible to see a stop sign from one of those directions, and my parents who contacted the neighbor whose trees they were to trim them back. All because the cops weren't interested in figuring out why it had happened, only to assign fault to one of the drivers for insurance purposes and be on their way.
Contrast that with the countries with the lowest traffic fatality rates in the world like the Netherlands, which look at each traffic accident and investigate ways to adjust how the roads are laid out to prevent it from occurring in the future.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Funny) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday September 07 2021, @02:51PM (3 children)
But non fatal accidents drive so much economic activity! Insurance, medical, rehab, car repair, rental and replacement. Trillions of dollars in economic activity that must be preserved!!!
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @05:31PM (2 children)
Broken window fallacy, or in this case, broken bones fallacy.
(Score: 3, Touché) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday September 07 2021, @06:30PM (1 child)
A surprising amount of the modern world is built on the broken window fallacy.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @09:08PM
Look at the entire tax prep industry.
Most of the civilized world just has the revenue service tell them what is owed, but that isn't FREEDUMB enough for the USA.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday September 07 2021, @01:34PM (3 children)
There is some truth in the observation: if traffic never gets above 30 mph, it is hard to have a fatal accident. However, it is much more complex than that.
I seriously question a study which only found a 2.1% decrease in miles traveled 2020 vs 2019. Around here (metro area population 1M) traffic is still at least 10-20% down from 2019 levels, and for a couple of months in 2020 traffic was down 60% or more. Just the fraction of kids doing remote schooling and new work from home transitions would account for more than 2.1% drop in traffic around here.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday September 07 2021, @08:02PM (2 children)
My observations are similar. There simply aren't as many vehicles on the road as there were 2 or 3 years ago. Maybe BLM/Antifa rioters are making up the difference in miles traveled?
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Tuesday September 07 2021, @09:14PM
Heh. I wouldn't rule out Romulan involvement.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday September 07 2021, @10:43PM
Either their sampling method was seriously skewed, or they used some magic math to get their numbers.
The roads around here, from locals to interstates, did not experience 98% of the miles traveled in 2019 during 2020 - even though local population seems to have grown by about 5% during that time, major housing boom and companies opening new offices in town.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday September 07 2021, @02:13PM (6 children)
I don't suppose there are enough self deriving cars on the road yet to point our fingers at AI and say AI is to blame.
Why is it that when I hold a stick, everyone begins to look like a pinata?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Tuesday September 07 2021, @02:47PM (3 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Tuesday September 07 2021, @03:59PM (1 child)
Maybe nobody wants to offend the AI overlords.
Why is it that when I hold a stick, everyone begins to look like a pinata?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @05:39PM
I, for one, would like to take this time to welcome our new AI overlords.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday September 07 2021, @06:24PM
All available evidence is that for the vast majority of crashes, humans are to blame. There's a good chance that includes the Tesla crashes, since you're supposed to still be monitoring them even if the AI is engaged. The only reason those would be the AI's fault is if the driver were inputting manual instructions to fix whatever the AI did wrong and the AI ignored or fought against what they were doing, and so far the impression I've been getting is that the driver wasn't doing that but instead busy on their phone or being plastered or something not-driving-related.
And when it comes to AI drivers, if they get to the point where they're statistically less dangerous than humans, we should be switching to them. A lot of people have dramatically overestimated wetware.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 5, Touché) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday September 07 2021, @06:32PM (1 child)
My cars all get their formulas out of a table in a book. Self deriving cars can't be trusted.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @07:15PM
Don't drink and derive!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @05:15PM (1 child)
… those unvaccinated drivers not wearing their facemasks and seat belts from driving!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 07 2021, @07:19PM
I figured the accidents were caused by drivers wearing their face masks wrong!
(Score: 3, Touché) by MostCynical on Tuesday September 07 2021, @07:23PM
https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=46613 [soylentnews.org]
apparently, this is news NOW, but wasn't a few months ago.
/miffed
If driving near me is any indication, people have decided not to use blinkers, courtesy or 'common sense' while driving (so fits with not wearing masks, not social distancing and not getting vaccinated!)
People are becoming more selfish.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 08 2021, @05:33AM
Just the past couple months I've been thinking that it seems like there are an awful lot of accidents in my rural county of about 60k people. They have been serious high speed head-on crashes, some with fatalities, at least one involving somebody not wearing a seat belt. I chalked it up to a statistical anomaly where you expect there to be "clusters" even when accidents are random; but maybe there really is something to it.
Just last week a highway was shut down and when that happens it's never a good sign. Sure enough, when they released the details it turned out to be a pedestrian fatality. They were in the cross-walk, but wearing dark clothing at night and crossing against the light. Aside from the tragedy of an untimely death, there's one more motorist who has to live with that, because the preliminary report is that they were not intoxicated or anything. Was it suicide? We don't know yet.
Anyway, there doesn't seem to be a real pattern. It's all the usual stuff, just more of it.