Those that have been reading my blog for some time now know that I have been calling the city out on the “safest city” lie it has been perpetuating for years now. In “The Safest City in the Nation, Just Another Lie” I explained to you how the FBI’s data, used by the list compiler, is data that the FBI has specifically told everyone that it should not be used to compile the safest city rankings. The list maker has apparently decided that their ranking methodology is flawed and has stopped making the list.
As a response guess what the city did? It created its own safest city list and designated itself the safest city in the nation.
Yup, you read that right, now that there is on publication from which to proclaim itself the safest city in the nation the city goes and creates a list making itself the safest city in the nation!
Guess who is championing this lie now? That would be Oscar Leeser.
During last Tuesday’s city council meeting (May 19, 2015) the lie was again revealed. The item being discussed was agenda item 16.1 discussing the city’s strategic plan from the perspectives of the Fire and Police Departments. During police assistant Chief Michelle Gardner’s presentation, that started at about the 5:15:00 mark, Oscar Leeser interjected and asked Gardner to discuss the “safest city designation.”
Leeser asked Gardner to elaborate, “We would have qualified again as the safest city in the nation for the fifth straight year…if the list had been published this year, is that correct?”
Gardner responded, “The safest city designations…were done historically by CQ Press. They still produce the book that compiles all of the crime data [but] they no longer designate the top ten safest cities.”
Gardner continued, “We did get the book…we replicated the formula that they use and the data that they use. Using that formula we were able to replicate their process and if they were to have awarded it…it looks like we would be the safest city” in the nation for a city of a population of over 500,000.
Yes, you read that correctly. CQ Press no longer makes the list, so the city took their flawed methodology and proclaimed themselves the safest city in the nation!
Not missing a beat, the mayor congratulated her for making El Paso the “safest city” in the nation again.
Except that it is all political rhetoric designed to bolster the safest city lie that El Paso has been perpetuating for years.
Forget that I have already written numerous times that the underlining data that CQ Press used in their previous “awards” was based on FBI crime data that the FBI specifically told everyone that it should not be used for ranking cities by the prevalence of crime. That is right; the compiler of the underlining data that was used to rank the cities tells everyone that the data is not valid for ranking the crime in cities.
CQ Press finally acknowledged this by ceasing to “award” safest and worst cities by crime.
However, the lie still needs to be perpetuated and thus the “award” has to be entered into the public record so that it can be used to continue to perpetuate the lie for political purposes. Since there is no longer anyone giving out the award based on faulty data, the city, in its quest to propagandize a political lie, invented some convoluted process whereby the original faulty data is applied to a “formula” a publication is no longer using and the city self-designates itself the safest city in the nation!
Yes, the city has awarded itself the safest city in the nation award for 2015!
Most of you probably didn’t hear the discussion at city hall because you are all too busy working to pay the city’s exorbitant taxes.
Do not worry the politicos know this. The discussion was not about you but rather it was designed to lay down the framework for the politicos to utter the “safest city” lie each time they need something to substantiate their existence to you.
The way it works is this. First, it is uttered in open session at the city council meeting. There is the hope that some reporter uses it as a sound bite. If they didn’t, and it looks like they didn’t, the sound bite might show up later on a newscast as part of the “b-roll,” or secondary or background video used to make a point on another story.
Regardless, the real use of this self-awarded award public discussion is what the politicos will rely on when challenged about the “safest city” lie when a reporter or a blogger might challenge them on it. They will tell you, weren’t you listening on May 19, 2015, during the city council meeting, when Assistant Chief Michelle Gardner told us that we had been awarded the “safest city” in the nation in 2015.
By the time that it is used, no one is likely to go back, listen to the meeting tape, and understand the full context of the discussion. They will just assume that it is a fact. Remember the old adage, if you tell a lie long enough it becomes the truth.
With the help of a useful idiot or two, I promise you that this lie will be uttered in the near future and I have a feeling it will by Mayor Oscar Leeser that will be the first to utter it.
Typical El Paso, when they cannot buy an award they just make one up and give it to themselves. At the same time, the politicos pat themselves on the back for their astuteness. Truly disgusting.