The increasing crime wave!!!!

I haven't checked the statistics lately but I suspect that what is increasing is not so much crime itself as the reporting of crime. In the past, newspapers, which were mostly local then, only reported out of area crimes when they were major. Today, with the huge increase in cable TV news outlets, especially those that report news 24/7, has resulted in the media reporting crimes from all over the world and treating them as if they were happening in the viewer's own neighborhood. An old adage in the news business is that bad news sells and crime is bad news so the media is pushing it. Politics is another factor. Law enforcement departments are growing and need to justify their existence in order to have their budgets increased. Much of the growth is in back office desk jobs and "community liason" type jobs which are out of the line of fire and do little to fight crime but still pay well and need taxpayer support to meet the payroll. When you travel around town observe the number of different squad cars with uniformed officers in them. Where I live we have state troopers (police) patrolling the interstate and major state highways including those within the city. We have county sheriff officers doing the same thing. We have local police departments for both the city and each suburb, we have official police departments for both the Community College and state university even though these institutions are within the jurisdictions of the state, county and city police departments. Being close to the border there is also an abundance of Border Patrol and other Homeland Security squad cars driving around. Each one of these overlapping police organizations is competing for tax dollars and all fighting to be the first in front of the cameras when a crime occurs. Add to this prosecutors using the office as a stepping stone for higher office and it is easy to get stories about the rising crime rate. Finally, we keep increasing the number of laws which means that it becomes easier for people to find themselves breaking some obscure law and getting arrested. Consider this. In most states "assault" is defined as physically touching someone. If you and your neighbor get into an argument over where one of you parks your car or your children running over the others lawn, etc. and get up close and angry when one of you decides that enough is enough and gently backs off while putting a hand on the other's shoulder to prevent him or her from advancing as you back away you can be charged with assault. When the police release their arrest statistics and the nightly news headlines them with their usual 30 second "in depth reporting" they will say that assaults increased X% but, unless you dig into the statistics (which the media won't and the police will not include in their press release) your touching your neighbor will be included along with the violent assaults by muggers and rapists. So don't worry, most of this is bureaucratic hot air that is being fanned by the media.