Joe Garcia, a Democratic congressman from Florida, inexplicably claimed that the recognition of El Paso, Texas as the safest large city in the United States shows that "communism works." During a conversation about funding for immigration policy (specifically border control), Garcia said: “Let me give you an example of the kind of money we’ve poured in. So the most dangerous---sorry, the safest city in America is El Paso, Texas. It happens to be across the border from the most dangerous city in the Americas, which is Juarez. Right? And two of the safest cities in America, two of them are on the border with Mexico. And of course, the reason is we’ve proved that Communism works. If you give everybody a good government job, there’s no crime.”
When Garcia says, "safest cities," he is presumably referring to a widespread report (the original source of which is not clear) that ranked the "safest" and "most dangerous" cities in America by population. El Paso was ranked "safest" for cities with 500,000 people or more---the report does not mention that, according to the Census Bureau, there are only 34 cities in the United States with populations of 500,000 or more (El Paso is America's 19th largest city in terms of population). That being said, El Paso is safe for a city of that size---but it still had 1,400 violent crimes in that year, so it's all relative. However, it is Garcia's comparison with Juarez, Mexico that's most puzzling here. Juarez has the second highest murder rate in the world (every city in the top-20 is in Central or South America---5 of the top-10 and 9 of the top-20 are in Mexico)---so apart from the fact that Juarez is in lawless Mexico and El Paso is in the United States, what could possibly account for the disparity in crime between these two cities? (I'll pretend as if I didn't just answer that question). El Paso is home to Fort Bliss and Biggs Army Airfield, and has 37,000 people employed in the defense industry. In addition to the military presence, El Paso is home to the multiple headquarters, divisions, task forces, and operation centers for agencies such as the DEA, INS (immigration), DHS (homeland security), and CBP (customs and border patrol)---maybe this is the deterrent that keeps crime from spilling-over from Juarez...? Nah. He's probably right, it's the communism.
Setting aside the crime statistics, and the reason behind that crime, let's take a look at the labor statistics: El Paso has an unemployment rate of about 7.2%---and this is the official rate, the real rate is likely at least a few points higher. El Paso has a population of about 672,000, and, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), it has a civilian labor force of 323,000, with 299,200 of those people employed. A quick digression: From November of 2013 through March of 2014, El Paso's civilian labor force dropped by 3,400 people, and total employment dropped by 500 jobs. This a perfect example of the Obama economy, because, over that same time period, El Paso's unemployment rate plummeted from 8.2% to 7.4%---they lose 500 jobs and the unemployment rate drops by nearly a full percentage point! But the issue here is Garcia's claim that everyone in El Paso has "a good government job" and that's why "there's no crime." So far I've shown that his claim doesn't even come close because nowhere near "everyone" in El Paso has a job, but what about government jobs? According to the BLS, only 70,000 out of the above-mentioned 299,200 are employed in government jobs. I'll do the math for you: that's 23% of El Paso's total employment, and only 10% of its total population. These numbers show that Garcia is wrong, as 90% of people in El Paso don't have government jobs, and 77% of those employed are working in non-government jobs. But his logic gets even worse, because in order for his comparison to make sense it would have to be the case that El Paso has a communist economy and Juarez has some different economic system that could be contrasted with communism. In reality, El Paso is largely capitalist, and Juarez is a socialist wasteland.
Finally, there is a bigger point about communism here: There is no greater criminal in the history of the world than the communist system of government---around 100 million people killed, and countless others who lived the life of a sub-human slave, deprived of any semblance of humanity, much less liberty. It is only in the mind of a liberal that all this could be wiped away by the crime rate in El Paso...truly deplorable.
Link to BLS statistics:
http://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.tx_elpaso_msa.htm
When Garcia says, "safest cities," he is presumably referring to a widespread report (the original source of which is not clear) that ranked the "safest" and "most dangerous" cities in America by population. El Paso was ranked "safest" for cities with 500,000 people or more---the report does not mention that, according to the Census Bureau, there are only 34 cities in the United States with populations of 500,000 or more (El Paso is America's 19th largest city in terms of population). That being said, El Paso is safe for a city of that size---but it still had 1,400 violent crimes in that year, so it's all relative. However, it is Garcia's comparison with Juarez, Mexico that's most puzzling here. Juarez has the second highest murder rate in the world (every city in the top-20 is in Central or South America---5 of the top-10 and 9 of the top-20 are in Mexico)---so apart from the fact that Juarez is in lawless Mexico and El Paso is in the United States, what could possibly account for the disparity in crime between these two cities? (I'll pretend as if I didn't just answer that question). El Paso is home to Fort Bliss and Biggs Army Airfield, and has 37,000 people employed in the defense industry. In addition to the military presence, El Paso is home to the multiple headquarters, divisions, task forces, and operation centers for agencies such as the DEA, INS (immigration), DHS (homeland security), and CBP (customs and border patrol)---maybe this is the deterrent that keeps crime from spilling-over from Juarez...? Nah. He's probably right, it's the communism.
Setting aside the crime statistics, and the reason behind that crime, let's take a look at the labor statistics: El Paso has an unemployment rate of about 7.2%---and this is the official rate, the real rate is likely at least a few points higher. El Paso has a population of about 672,000, and, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), it has a civilian labor force of 323,000, with 299,200 of those people employed. A quick digression: From November of 2013 through March of 2014, El Paso's civilian labor force dropped by 3,400 people, and total employment dropped by 500 jobs. This a perfect example of the Obama economy, because, over that same time period, El Paso's unemployment rate plummeted from 8.2% to 7.4%---they lose 500 jobs and the unemployment rate drops by nearly a full percentage point! But the issue here is Garcia's claim that everyone in El Paso has "a good government job" and that's why "there's no crime." So far I've shown that his claim doesn't even come close because nowhere near "everyone" in El Paso has a job, but what about government jobs? According to the BLS, only 70,000 out of the above-mentioned 299,200 are employed in government jobs. I'll do the math for you: that's 23% of El Paso's total employment, and only 10% of its total population. These numbers show that Garcia is wrong, as 90% of people in El Paso don't have government jobs, and 77% of those employed are working in non-government jobs. But his logic gets even worse, because in order for his comparison to make sense it would have to be the case that El Paso has a communist economy and Juarez has some different economic system that could be contrasted with communism. In reality, El Paso is largely capitalist, and Juarez is a socialist wasteland.
Finally, there is a bigger point about communism here: There is no greater criminal in the history of the world than the communist system of government---around 100 million people killed, and countless others who lived the life of a sub-human slave, deprived of any semblance of humanity, much less liberty. It is only in the mind of a liberal that all this could be wiped away by the crime rate in El Paso...truly deplorable.
Link to BLS statistics:
http://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.tx_elpaso_msa.htm
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