L.A. Times: Influx Of Money Boosts Gun-Related Crime

For years we have been told that poverty causes crime, or at least makes otherwise good people susceptible to becoming involved in it. Now, however, the Los Angeles Times suggests that the influx of money into previously poverty-stricken and abandoned areas could be correlated with firearm-related crime as well.

According to the Times, investments and enterprise aimed at revitalizing downtown L.A. have been accompanied by a “dramatic rise rise in crime.” The Times explains that “violent crime in the Los Angeles Police Department’s Central Division, which covers parts of downtown, skid row and Chinatown, was up more than 57% through the end of August compared with the same period last year, and property offenses increased nearly 25%, according to police data.”

They do not mention that the rise in crime has correlated with a rise in gun control–both at the state and city level–but they instead report that the influx of money is causing problems.

Here is how they frame it:

The forces of rapid gentrification are crashing up against the chronic poverty, homelessness and crime that have long been a part of life in the city center. Police and residents say the influx of new lofts, luxury high-rise apartments, bars and eateries have made new downtown dwellers easy targets for street crime.

Police are trying to  reverse the crime wave by putting more officers in the area, but Union Rescue Mission’s Rev. Andy Bales says it’s not enough–at least not yet, anyway. He said it seems the LAPD has largely taken “a hands-off approach” when it comes “to policing skid row while the homeless population has ballooned and conditions have grown more dire.”

Just as the Times did not mention the fact that surge in crime correlates with more gun control, so, too, they did not mention that L.A. is a Democrat-run city in which the homeless population exists and has burgeoned under Democrat policies.

Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.