[magkelly]

I'm really of two minds about immigration. One the one hand both sets of my grandparents immigrated here legally and I am proud of what they accomplished. On the other I have seen the town I grew up in inundated with people from other countries and I have seen it go from a sleepy laid back almost crime free town to a place that is suddenly riddled with gangs, plagued by drug wars, car jackings, violent muggings and the like.

You can't bike outdoors anymore without worrying. You can't let your kids wander. Dead bolt locked doors don't stop vicious crimes. People are getting shot every other day, gang members and innocents alike,and the violence is just escalating more and more.

I'd love to be able to be totally fair and open minded and not blame the immigrants in my town for any of this. But it's a fact that nearly 75% of the crime here now isn't caused by the poor white folks or the brothers from the ghetto area. The folks in the ghetto, they're all afraid of the newcomers actually. It's all Mexican and South American drug gangs, the gangs coming in from Russia, China, and elsewhere and many if not all of these people are not legal by any means.

I read the paper and I look at the names and lately a lot of the time the person up for being arrested is Hispanic, Asian maybe Russian. Am I supposed to just ignore that? Crimes that used to be committed in fewer numbers by low income whites and blacks they're more and more committed by Hispanics etc and they're getting more and more violent as time goes by. Used to be some poor drug addicted kid from one side of the tracks or another would go in rob a 7-11, score a few $$$ and leave not harming anyone. Now they have almost everyone in town who owns a convenience store armed to the teeth because someone walks into your store to rob you like as not they'll kill you so as not to leave any witnesses. Used to be the worst drug around here was a little grass sold in the school yard. Now it's meth labs on every corner it seems and your kid's pusher is more likely to be from the Ukraine than local.

I have nothing against legal immigrants wherever they come from, but the scum that's been sneaking across the border, getting into this country illegally however they do it, that's another story. I don't want people like that given amnesty. I want them all sent back home to whatever pit they crawled out of. You can't even hardly go to Mexico on a cruise ship these days for fear you'll get kidnapped and ransomed or walk the streets there and not worry about getting in the middle of a drug war, and yet people want us not to worry about who we're allowing across our borders? Yeah, right.

Legal immigrants get checked out. Illegal immigrants slide in past all our safeguards and that's not good. Many of the people coming illegally are fleeing the violence and poverty of where they came from. I get that, but along with them come the very people they fear the most, and that we simply cannot continue to allow. There has to be a more strict control of our borders. Yes, some very nice people will get turned away in the process, and they'll have to turn to legal channels if they want to return, but if we get more strict we can catch the bad ones before they take us over completely and that is something we must do if we want to have a safer country for all of us, including legal immigrants.

[Ailuropoda]

United States Crime Rates 1960 - 2010
The USA has become a much safer place to be in compared to the era that I grew up in. It's a far cry from my parents' day.
https://osi.alberta.ca/osi-content/Pages/Factsheets/ViolentCrimeRatesforCanadaandProvinces.aspx
For some reason, we here in Canada are much more violent, or maybe we have a broader definition of violent.

[les3547]

United States Crime Rates 1960 - 2010
The USA has become a much safer place to be in compared to the era that I grew up in. It's a far cry from my parents' day.
https://osi.alberta.ca/osi-content/Pages/Factsheets/ViolentCrimeRatesforCanadaandProvinces.aspx
For some reason, we here in Canada are much more violent, or maybe we have a broader definition of violent.

Canada is higher on the list than I thought it was, but the US still has more violent crime per capita than Canada. Check out this interesting NationMaster - Crime Statistics list of statistics about countries with the most crime. Canada does have more rapes and burglaries, England has more crime overall. Surprising really.

[Nesster]

...one explanation I've seen for the change in crime rates is that the baby boomers used to boom as teens and young adults... and then the baby bust reduced the numbers of young people who are most likely to do crime. I don't know if that's valid though.

[rajubhai55]

Taking about current situation of Jobs in USA, here is something mentioned about immigration reforms in latest report from President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness:

Executives tell Obama how to create jobs

It seeks to bolster entrepreneurship by changing student loan repayment rules for graduates who own or work for new companies and offering visas to foreign-born entrepreneurs who form or join start-ups in the United States.

The jobs council also calls for a speedier process of immigrant visa decisions. It proposes foreign graduates who earn U.S. degrees in science, technology, engineering and math should get green cards offering them permanent residency.

"Delays all too often result in these talented people opting to start or join companies in other countries, where they will compete against American firms," the report said.

[rajubhai55]

And there is now a record deportation.

CNN

[nanhi]

I think the Moderator ought to close this link as it has nothing to do with Photography.
This is a never ending topic true for almost all countries in the world.

[boriscleto]

I think the Moderator ought to close this link as it has nothing to do with Photography.
This is a never ending topic true for almost all countries in the world.

That's why it's in Off-Topic Political and Religious Discussion. If you don't want to see these discussions you can turn this forum off by following the directions in the sticky.

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/political-religious-discussion/91433-how-...ore-forum.html

[Parallax]

I think the Moderator ought to close this link as it has nothing to do with Photography.
This is a never ending topic true for almost all countries in the world.

This is the Political and Religious forum. The whole section has nothing to do with photography. That's what it's here for.

[Nesster]

it has nothing to do with Photography.

OK, let's ask the question relative to photography. When the exchange rates and pricing across the globe favors it, there is a lot of grey market camera equipment etc coming into a country. Is that a good thing, or bad? And to whom is it good or bad?

If we, say, go onto a well known auction site and purchase bits from China... ones that undercut legally imported and supported bits, is that bad? What if Pentax doesn't make a manual focus viewfinder screen? Or Pentax USA/Canada (for example) doesn't distribute the official M42 adapter?

We could say the grey market goods take jobs from our country, reduce the viability of the dealers and importers we depend on... on the other hand we can say grey market goods keep pricing honest.

[boriscleto]

'We Don't Need Warrants, We're ICE' | Crooks and Liars

[rajubhai55]

Adding to confusion what is real story here is the response from Metropolitan Police Department

Response