Battleangel

The US is seeing the biggest surge in violent crime since the early 90s. Well, so much for the massive incarceration scheme and a brutal, militarized police force.

Murders in the United States jumped 4.8 percent last year, and overall violent crime was up 2.5 percent for the year, marking the largest annual increase in crime in the United States since 1991, according to figures released Monday by the FBI.

Law enforcement authorities and criminologists reacted cautiously, uncertain whether the preliminary statistics for 2005 signal the end of a long downward trend in crime or simply a one-year anomaly.

The Justice Department was quoted as saying that “we don’t really know what’s driving this.” I bet. Anything else would be admitting that they could have done something about it, and much sooner. Not to mention that they can’t admit that there could be anything wrong with the tough stance on crime that has prevailed in the US for the last decades.

Also, this has implications for America’s colonial policies, which exist in the same inhumane context and depend pretty much on the same idea of massive and reckless incarceration. A truly modern, civilized nation could not produce the things we have witnessed at Bagram, Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. In the case of America, the abuse and disregard for human dignity is endemic since it has first been cultivated at home. And in subtle ways that previous rogue states couldn’t even dream of or have time to implement. Conversely, the events that have taken place in the last years in colonial dungeons around the world are bound to “come home to roost” eventually. Specifically, young men seeking employment with correctional facilities or law enforcement.