Mitch Roth: crime spike just social media hysteria

[terracore]

http://www.civilbeat.org/2017/07/alan-mc...ial-media/

[Eric1600]

According to Police Lt. Miles Chong, who heads the Criminal Investigations Section of Hawaii County Area One (Hamakua-Hilo-Puna), the number of burglary and robbery incidents island-wide actually declined in the 2015-16 fiscal year, the most recent for which statistics are available. Car thefts were up, but only after declining the year before.

“We don’t have anything substantial to indicate that there’s a structured criminal organization involved in these crimes.” Chong said. “Offenders just associate themselves with a few acquaintances or family members.”

Mitch Roth estimated that the number of individuals perpetrating the current spike in vehicle thefts was relatively low — perhaps as few as 55 suspects. Of those, he said, several were already in custody and arrest warrants had been written for others.

Online commenters almost routinely assume that thefts are drug-related; comment threads on Big Island Thieves are frequently laced with “damned tweakers,” “meth heads,” and similar epithets.

But Chong noted that while some cars are stripped for parts, “A lot of time they’re just run to the ground and abandoned….We suspect they’re just taking them for a joy ride.”


I happened to go to one of the HPP swap meets and stopped by the crime watchers table. They had a lot of historical data and I had been "hearing about a lot of crime". After looking at their data I realized it was mostly hype. I've noticed that a lot of small communities tend to have substantial fears of crime and it often gets worse if the average age of the members is higher. While the age relationship is just my informal observation, as I posted before, there is a new study that shows the fear of crime is contagious. Inoculate yourself a little.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/...rime-maths

[randomq]

itch, you work for us. We pay you to catch and prosecute criminals, not psychoanalyze and talk down to law-abiding citizens.

55 individuals creating a spike in crime is not hysteria, it's an opportunity for you to do your job.

[Chunkster]

C'mon Mitch. This is a distraction from the real issue, lack of prosecutorial vigor. Things do get exaggerated on social media, but there are some damning and undeniable facts regarding plea bargains and Mitch Roth's office. Peter Boy's mother was given such a sweet deal ("time served" of about a year) that even the scandalously lenient Judge Nakamura was on the verge of rejecting it. A man who shot his son multiple times and threw the body off a cliff into the ocean will probably end up serving about five to seven years. I'll say it one more time: Mitch Roth would be better suited for a career in social work.

[terracore]

Regardless if things are getting exaggerated or not, social media has provided the platform for constituents to be better informed / educated on how bad things really are. The genie is out of the bottle. People now have a forum, and are currently discussing mob violence and vigilante justice. THAT is the hysteria they need to focus on preventing.

[Radiopeg]

I liked the article. What actions can we take in terms of prevention of this theft culture? Children don't start out thieves.

Peace and long life

[TomK]

Well, I have a couple of comments. I certainly agree with Eric and the article he posted that social media can lead to a contagious opinion that crime has increased and might be out of control, but a couple of things caught my eye.

"But Chong noted that while some cars are stripped for parts, “A lot of time they’re just run to the ground and abandoned….We suspect they’re just taking them for a joy ride.”"

If my car was stolen, I'd be upset no matter if it was going to be stripped for parts or used for joyriding. The use of the word "just" makes me think it's not a crime Chong takes seriously. The immediate impact on the victim is the same though.

"According to Police Lt. Miles Chong, who heads the Criminal Investigations Section of Hawaii County Area One (Hamakua-Hilo-Puna), the number of burglary and robbery incidents island-wide actually declined in the 2015-16 fiscal year, the most recent for which statistics are available. Car thefts were up, but only after declining the year before."

So Chong is playing things down, but in a Nixle email today, we read that:

"Hawaii Island police arrested a 25-year-old Volcano man as they continue to address the deeply concerning increase in property crimes, mainly stolen motor vehicles." [My bolding].

https://local.nixle.com/alert/6065621/?sub_id=344108

To me, it seems Chong is saying one thing but the rest of the police dept. is saying another.

[Chunkster]

TomK, this is nothing new. It has been quite common for the politically motivated elements of the police hierarchy to say one thing while the cops on the ground know better and say something else . . . when they can get away with it.

[randomq]

Victim on finding a cache of stolen cars:

"Police told me when I asked that they couldn’t run VIN numbers or see if any of those were stolen….. They said it wasn’t allowed by their ‘uppers’ in the department."

Later in the article they describe another victim whose house is searched without warrant for gas cans stolen by the car thief, after she reported her car stolen hours prior.

This is either gross incompetence, or corruption. I think we need an outside investigator to determine which. We need effective police and prosecution.

[PaulW]

I've been hearing about more stolen cars than ever before and a Nixle alert said a special taskforce had been set up to deal with this increase, so are the police succumbing to the hysteria as well? Or maybe they're doing it to calm people down. The stats will give us the answer, eventually.