Big surprise here, but if you increase police funding, you get more police, and less crime as a result. And, because it's Friday, scarifying seeds.
This may shock and surprise you, but if you have more police, all other things being equal, you will likely have less crime.
The Common Sense Institute (a conservative think tank) is doing a series on crime stats in major cities and the first one (CO Springs) recently came out.
The article I saw it in and the study itself are linked below.
The Springs is doing pretty well. To quote the CPR article crime in the Springs has " ... fallen almost 10 percent since 2010, a period of time over which crime rates rose nearly 75 percent in Denver and rose about 45 percent statewide." **
If, and as, you read the below, I would caution you to avoid the temptation to go too far afield in your conclusions.
As I have written about before, what you will see in the report below is a disparity. There is a difference in numbers between the crime rate in the Springs vs. the rest of Colorado and/or Denver. There is also a difference in numbers for how the police are funded.
I think it's reasonable to assume these two things are related. I would urge caution at saying that the difference is solely due to police, however. The Springs is spending more on cops and this A part of the reason for their lower crime rate, not THE reason. There could be other factors at play.
One last thing. In the report there was a graph that stuck out to me. I attached it as a screenshot. The reason this stuck out to me is that this felt to me like one of the best metrics to gauge how well a city is doing in terms of its police being able to keep a lid on crime.
The simple comparison of cops (and spending on same) vs. population. See how the rise in population is met with a rise (even adjusted for 2022 dollars) in spending on police? I wonder how other major cities fare on this measure. Supposedly this report is the first in a series for major Colorado cities and I will be curious to see the others.
**Out of sense of fairness/completeness, I want to quote the CPR article again. "The one area of crime profiled in the report where the rate in Colorado Springs was higher than that in Denver was arson. Colorado Springs ranks 13th among U.S. cities with populations of 100,000 or more in arson crimes. Denver ranks 36th."
https://www.cpr.org/2023/02/24/colorado-springs-crime-has-fallen-since-2010-even-as-total-crime-in-the-state-is-up-a-lot/
https://commonsenseinstituteco.org/spotlight-on-crime-in-colorado-springs/
Scarifying seeds
Last one of the day and you know what that means: something for fun and not related to politics.
It'll also be the last one for a couple days because I'll be away from my computer Saturday (but back on Sunday).
Have you ever heard of scarifying seeds? If you have, you've got a leg up on me because I didn't learn of it until very recently (last couple months). I first came across it in researching starting asparagus from seed (I forget if I mentioned, but I collected some asparagus seed last fall as insurance against moving my crowns).
At any rate, if you have ever planted things like nasturtium or other VERY hard-shelled seeds (or similar ones like peas with a thick shell) you have likely seen the advice I have: soak your seeds for 24 hours to help in germination.
There is, however, another way to help in germination and that is scarifying. You take and file, sand, chip, or cut down one edge of the seed to help it germinate. There are a variety of ways that you can do it, but you must be careful to only cut the seed coat and not the germ; you don't want to hurt the part that will become the plant.
I put some screenshots up that I harvested from the internet to give you a sense of how it will look when you do it right.
I also included some of my own asparagus seed which I tried in a couple ways (sanding and using a nail clipper). The first screenshot is of the plain asparagus seed. The second is of the scarified seed (I circled in blue where the seedcoat has been removed on a couple). Lastly this was the seed and nail clipper for scale. Of the three I found clipping to be easiest. It was the most precise for my giant sausage fingers; seriously, how in the world am I supposed to hold that tiny little seed and file it?!
Lastly, I put a link below as a reference if you wanted to see a bit more.
Do you have to do this? No. I've planted nasturtium dry and soaked both. They germinate fine provided you put some extras in. I've planted peas and beans the same way. They germinate fine (within the limits of how well beans germinate anyways!), again provided that you plant some extra.
From what I can see in researching this, scarification helps increase the germination rate so if you're concerned about your seed budget, maybe it's worth it. For me it's probably going to remain in the "try for fun" category.
Meantime, I probably won't scarify beans or peas, I'll just soak.
Have a good Friday!
https://www.thespruce.com/stratification-seeds-into-thinking-its-winter-1403100