Houston attorney Mark Bennett has an
fine post up debunking a claim by the Dallas Morning News that, "In Houston alone, about 300,000 sex trafficking cases are prosecuted each year." The real number: Two, if you tally up state-level prosecutions; add in federal indictments and the number gets into the double digits. "So 300,000?," writes Bennett, "Utter and complete nonsense." Read the
full post.
MORE: The DMN has now updated its
editorial to delete the false information; hope they also included a formal correction in the print version of the paper.
Kinda like the "multi-billion dollar" child porn "industry" that we hear about sometimes.
ReplyDeleteHow do people come up with these bullshit numbers?
Rank hyperbole presented as fact should not be tolerated. In ANY situation if a newspaper says "300,000" when the correct number is less than a dozen then an apology and a rolled-head is necessary.
ReplyDeleteSeize a bolt of cotton at the border and its valued as if it were going to become an expensive evening gown.
Seize some drugs destined for a middle man and they are valued at high end retail prices in good neighborhoods.
"Sex trafficking" is the latest buzzword for the media.
Based on Bennett's comments the number might just have come from Ted Poe.
ReplyDeleteTed recently introduced new and improved federal sex traffic proposals (had to do something, he won't touch NSA, IRS, 0-Care, the forever wars) and needs some big numbers to gull we mundanes into non-questioning support.
And he's up for re-erection next year.
Somebody mentioned the drug value numbers that make the evening news. How is that pertinent? Tell the ounces or grams or pounds if you just have to have an amount. I hear some police depts. are reselling seized guns. How about financing the drug war by selling seized drugs? Morning rant over.
ReplyDeleteHere's your real sex traffickers: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tribute-to-survivors-of-child-sexual-assault-by-law-enforcement-officers/180584842010594
ReplyDeleteThey could have simply said the zero key malfunctioned over and over and the spell checkers where out sick.
ReplyDeleteAnother example of the Fuzzy Math movement. A mexican buddy (his description of himself) said - when you hear that they confiscated 100K worth of weed, that's gringo prices. Vatos don't pay sticker prices and laugh at the claims as padding for justification on a war on agriculture.
These damn lies, perpetrated by public officials to gain media attention and votes, are what has driven our prison industry in this country! There is NO child porn industry because child porn is free and easily attainable on the Internet. There are men, and women, behind bars for incredibly long sentences who never had a "hands on" victim.
ReplyDeleteThe true statistics are ignored, or denied, while jerks who are looking for election, or re-election, get away with telling the public, who never question, big lies! And if you try to call them on these lies or present true facts you are vilified. When will the public wake up? When their loved one is caught in this trap... then it's too late!
Mark has changed the numberson his blog because they were just flat wrong. But the underlying logic remains.
ReplyDeleteNumbers that look crazy probably are.
I posted a smarmy comment on Mark's blog but the DMN needs to be spanked. The numbers are just so way out of line that any journalist with any training and half a brain should have questioned them.