Violence Up

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive
treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable,
for he is known and carries his banner openly.

But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely,
his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys,
heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor;
he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments,
he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men.

He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night
to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the the body politic
so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.

--Marcus Tullius Cicero

__________

Violent crimes have rise in the U.S. for the second straight year. The murder rate is up--''if modestly,'' by one Justice Department official's reckoning--but robberies rose by as much as 6 percent. When robbery rates rise, you can look to frustration and desperation as motivators.

''The Justice Department said Friday teams of federal agents are being dispatched to four cities to combat violent crime: Mesa, Ariz.; Orlando, Fla.; San Bernardino, Calif.; and San Juan, Puerto Rico (ATF Targets Crime in 4 Cities.).

''The announcement comes as the FBI prepares to release new numbers next week showing that violent crime continues to rise nationally [1.3% overall increase in 2006].''

''Meanwhile, a report by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found that federal crime-fighting task forces often duplicate efforts and compete for help from local authorities.''

Following the Republican reorganization of the nation's defenses, Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives now comes under that amorphous blob called Homeland Security (no doubt modeled after the seminal amorphous blob, Tom Ridge.) The idea was to eradicate such duplicative efforts (I almost wrote ''duplicitous,'' but eradicating that behavior in this administration won't happen anytime soon.)

What a disappointment they never earned a czarship. Sounds so cool, it's a pity, really. They could wear cossack-style hats as part of their uniform, even bridging the gap between East and West in that way. We all know how wowed we were by Hamid Karzai's silk capes and yak hats.

''New FBI data. . .show(s) a modest increase in violent crime for the second straight year, according to three Justice officials speaking on condition of anonymity.

''Violent crime rose by 2.2% in 2005--the first increase since 2001.''

If the gross national product would rise by this modest 2.2%, the U.S.A. would be rolling in clover.

Remember that FBI crime stats address only reported crime; therefore, one should approach them cautiously.

But it was the tail end of the article that really caught my eye:

• ''An undercover ATF agent and informant in Chicago bought a loaded gun from an informant working for the FBI's Safe Streets task force.
• ''FBI Safe Streets agents in Atlanta pulled over a member of a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force whose car matched the description of a suspect that both teams were looking for.
• ''ATF agents working an undercover sting at a Las Vegas gun show arrested a suspect for illegally buying firearms. The buyer turned out to be an informant working for the FBI - even though the ATF had taken steps to make sure there would be no overlap between federal agencies.

Notice something which should look not quite right in the description--it is the FBI reliance on informants in their operations. So ''informants'' are a part of Homeland Security/FBI/ATF&E. Is this what America has come to?

Possibly since the USSR collapsed, we are outsourcing KGB agents as advisers. Ranger fears for an America that bases its security and law enforcement upon informants.

In Ranger's handbook, informant equals lowlife scum. What better to deal with ATF and FBI! The safety of our nation is so sacred that scumbags should be our first line of defense.

I hope at least that our informants are not homosexuals, as that would be unacceptable for a God-fearing nation.