Crime is up? Wha?Are you sure.
Because like, I thought it wasn’t.
Via Joe Sacramento (hey Joe, whaddya know!), don’t miss Daniel Weintraub’s piece from earlier this week about Mayor Heather Fargo’s dangerously out-of-it reactions to being confronted with the city’s crime rates, which I have blogged about here often. So often I’m not going to bother to provide links. 🙂
“My sense is that we are tracking at about the same pace as other cities,” says Fargo when asked her explanation for Sacramento’s soaring crime rate. The numbers are staggering — Sacramento has close to the worst crime rate in the state, and the rate has risen 50%… fifty percent!! … during Fargo’s term.
But what I think is most interesting is this quote from Fargo, speculatin’ on why this might be the case: “We do have a lot of immigrants.” Put that in your brainpipe and smoke it for a sec. Then put those words in your favorite national politician’s mouth and imagine the reaction.
Ouch! Yeouch, even!
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So who’s a better option. Padilla?
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Hi Cool DMZ thanks for the link! Will return the favor for sure in the future. I hear you about the immigrant remark. What’s shocking about it is that we’re ALL immigrants. I think the word she was looking for was IGNORANTS. Yes, we certainly have a LOT of ignorants, and Fargo is the village ignorant supreme
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1) We are not ALL immigrants. Unless you count people from other States in the Union, which I don’t.
2) Lets objectively look at the numbers: I’d like to see the immigrant (broken down by both illegal and legal) perp crime rates, compared to the non-immigrant crime rate, to support/refute this comment. FBI stats would be fine.
A) She’s nuts and/or out of touch, and should not get our support.
OR
B) She’s right and willing to say things that are unpopular but technically true, and therefore should get our support.
So what do the numbers say? Let’s see, shall we?
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1717575,00.html
Click to access CC_208KBCC.pdf
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-106492.html
No FBI stats, but interesting…
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You have a transcript or some place you can point me to for that quote? I don’t remember reading it in the Weintraub piece, obviously.
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I am, of course, referring to her quote about immigrants.
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Raddogg – http://www.sacbee.com/weintraub/story/932913.html
What did ya’ll think of El Patron?
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Ugh. One of the few times in my life I’m seriously considering not voting at all. Our choices stink.
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Jesse: I hear you. I think badhairday put it best, our options stink. I suppose that means we’re stuck with 4 more years of this cluelessness.
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Turty Squip: I think there is a C) she has no idea what she is talking about, was caught completely off guard by the line of questioning, and just started putting words together.
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How many people here have lived in another major city and were familiar with that city’s mayoral race? From what I can see, many cities’ mayoral races are filled with flawed, less than stellar candidates. Look at our great neighbor, San Francisco. Gavin Newsom will steamroll over any opponent. Even though the homicide rate is the highest in 12 years. Even though he, like Fargo, has failed to get citywide Wifi off the ground. Even though he’s the type of guy to bang his best friend’s wife. At least SF’s budget is in the black. Oh wait, nevermind, it had a projected $340 million deficit.
If a far greater city like SF can’t produce a mayor without glaring deficiencies (to his credit, Newsom also has plusses. But so does Fargo)., then why should we bitch and moan about Sac’s candidates?
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Don’t forget Newsom also banged a subordinate. I don’t know why he wasn’t recalled for that, it’s horrendously crooked.
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Other than the usual public figures like BLoomberg, it appears that the bar for US mayors isn’t too high:
http://www.time.com/time/press_releases/article/0,8599,1050348,00.html
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As a former SF resident, I can attest to the fact that our Mayoral deficit is not unique to Sacramento. Hell, I was there during the Frank Jordan era. Ack!
DMZ – You forget the “3-S” cardinal rule of politics and sex – If both participants are straight, single and sexy, no one cares.
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you guys are letting the city council off way too easily here.
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TP, it is very important to remember that we have a ‘weak mayor’ system here, and that the person really running the show is the City Manager and, to some extent, respective department heads. We tend to think that the mayor is the person ‘in charge’ with the power to be a chief executive, when that really isn’t true.
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Just because other cities have bad choices for mayor too doesn’t make it OK that Sacramento is joining that party.
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Very good point about the weak mayor system, Stickie. Of course, it doesn’t excuse Fargo’s lame-brained reponses on crime, flooding, and budget issues.
My question is…does anyone really believe KJ can do any better? (I mean, come on, the guy’s under a federal investigation, St Hope has had more scandals than successes, etc. etc.)
I hate to vote with a sense of doom, but that’s what I’ll be doing this time. For Fargo. Um. Yay.
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So it’s not that she was factually wrong- just that she would say something so “offensive to some people”?
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she must be talking about those damned irish with their drinking and babymaking…
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For those who asked, the exact quote is:
Daniel W/Sacbee: “Crime has also been dropping in San Diego and San Jose, the state’s No. 2 and No. 3 cities in terms of population. In San Jose, a city of nearly 1 million people, the murder rate is one-fourth what it is in Sacramento. The rate for rapes is about 60 percent that of the capital, the robbery rate is 25 percent as high as it is here and the assault rate is about one-third as high as Sacramento. I pressed Fargo to speculate about what might explain the difference.
“We do have a lot of immigrants,” she said..
Contrast this against her recent interview with Inside East Sacramento this month where she cited “diversity” as being the city’s greatest strength. : Joe reaches for Advil :
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Well- East Sac’s diversity is a whole lot different from Sacramento’s at large.
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Maybe she is expecting a benevolant vigilante to clean it all up. That’s what happens in Spiderman.
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Do you suppose Mayor Fargo could be conspiring with Mayor Alan Autry of Fresno regarding Sacramento’s missing water meters? Check this out – click below:
Fraud behind water meters
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I have known Fargo for at least 18 years, she is not the same Heather Fargo she once was. Her MS is affecting her abilities to think. I saw this recently in a public forum. It’s sad.
Also, she, like almost all politicians who have been in office too long, have gone over to the Dark Side and no longer represent the desires and values of citizens of this city. She now only represents what SHE feels is best for this city, and her cronies make a living off her being in office, and that’s exactly why she needs to go. She is now nothing but a political hack who is trying to hang onto power on behalf of the cronies that put her in office.
I would bet that if KJ did not run for office, she wouldn’t be running for a third term. The Sacramento powers that put her in office would have supported another insider that they could control, but her being an incumbent unfortunatly gives her a distinct advantage over KJ.
KJ may not be perfect, but he does represent change and represents breaking up of Sacramento’s good ol boy power structure. If he ends up sucking, we can kisk his ass out in four years. I for one believe we need to give him a chance to put his actions where his mouth is.
And while we are at it, we need to get rid of EVERY current council member when they are up for election.
For those of you who want to vote for status quo and Fargo, I say please skip this election if you are unwilling to vote for KJ, you are part of the reason our country is in the shape it is in today, you are unwilling to break up the power structures in Washington and in Sacramento; go stick your head in the sand while the rest of us work to for real change.
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