El Paso Times: Governor’s Border Crime Statistics Nothing More Than Campaign Tactics

Most bloggers don’t take a look at the El Paso Times often enough, and that’s a shame because they’ve got a lot of the scoop on border news, as do many of the Valley papers.

Their latest revalation attacks Rick Perry’s alleged borderwide drops in crime:

Stunning borderwide drops in crime that Republican Gov. Rick Perry last week attributed to state border security efforts are more likely campaign calculations than accurate statistics, according to experts and some law enforcement officials.

In news conferences and campaign television commercials last week, Perry lauded state-led border security operations he said reduced crime 60 percent borderwide and kept Texans safe from terrorism.

But Perry’s top homeland security official acknowledged that the numbers used to calculate the average crime decrease do not prove a sustained drop in crime from El Paso to Brownsville, do not include crime rates in major border cities, and do not account for other possible reasons for the decrease.

Of course, Perry’s spokeswoman is trying to paint a nice picture. It is important to note, though, that her calculations focus on the future, and not Perry’s six plus year failure to address border crime:

Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt stood by the governor’s numbers this week.

“I don’t think there’s a doubt in anyone’s mind that increased law enforcement presence on the border will produce a dramatic reduction in crime,” she said.

And, here’s how they came up with their phony numbers:

To come up with the 60 percent drop in crime Perry touts, state homeland security officials averaged together declines in several counties from operations that happened at different times over a four-month period.

More fuzzy Republican math.

It seems that Republican Fuzzy Math has now gone from the budget surplus to education to border security. What’s next?

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