Lede from the New York Times:
A new study has come up with the monetary cost of a single murder: $17.25 million. Can we really afford not to invest in preventative measures?
Some snippets of reader comments:
“They could cut the cost a lot if they would just find him or her guilty in the morning and hang them in the afternoon.
“Don’t let Obama and the Dems take away your gun.
“If the ACLU had never come to the USA in the first place…
“They shoot mad dogs don’t they?
“Welfare leeches. More crime was perpetrated by such people, not less.
“Do away with radical liberal judges and you could reduce the cost by 99%.”
I freak when I browse troll comments on social and moral issues. My heart throbs. It’s beyond me how brutal and judgmental, the petty superiority, the tiny dominance, the… I don’t have the words.
There’s crime in the USA that stuns the world. There’s also a culture of bitter incivility with an extremely poor grasp. “Sufficient unto the day, is the evil thereof.”
By their estimates, more than 18,000 homicides that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded in 2007 alone will cost us roughly $300 billion.
That’s about as much as we’ve spent over nine years fighting the war in Afghanistan.