Justice Dept.'s Focus Has Shifted: Terror, immigration prioritized; violent crime rises

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: Washington Post, Page One

By Dan Eggen and John Solomon
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 17, 2007; A01

The Justice Department under the Bush administration has retreated from prosecutions of mobsters, white-collar criminals, environmental crimes and traditional civil rights infractions, new department data show. As part of a series of policy shifts that have greatly transformed the administration of federal justice, the department has strongly emphasized immigration and terrorism-related investigations. It has also devoted new attention to areas important to conservative activists, such as sex trafficking and obscenity, according to the department's own performance and budget numbers....

From 2000 to 2006, for example, there were large drops in the number of defendants related to environmental offenses (down 12 percent), organized crime (38 percent), white-collar crime (10 percent), bank robbery (18 percent) and bankruptcy fraud (46 percent), according to Justice Department statistics provided this week to The Washington Post. Money-laundering prosecutions related to drugs were also down nearly 25 percent, while the number of drug cases overall was stagnant.

There were simultaneous jumps in prosecutions related to immigration (up 36 percent), weapons cases (87 percent), official corruption (15 percent), and, most dramatically, terrorism and national security cases (876 percent). Indeed, Justice Department funds devoted to counterterrorism programs in Washington have tripled since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Department officials say the surge in resources for national security and terrorism probes, in particular, reflects the intense administration efforts to prevent another attack. But the number of terrorism-related defendants has been relatively small: Prosecutions peaked at 818 in 2003 and fell to 635 by 2006, and most of these were not for terrorist acts or plans....

***

The result is a department far less focused on the mob bosses, drug kingpins and bank robbers who have dominated much of its history, even as new FBI studies show a substantial rise in murders and other violent crimes over the past two years. The change has been so marked that, in a speech to a police group this week, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III signaled a desire to reinvigorate the department's emphasis on traditional crime-fighting. "We are realizing that national security is as much about reducing the number of homicides on our streets as it is about reducing the threat of terrorism," Mueller said Monday in New Orleans at a convention of the International Association of Chiefs of Police....

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/16/AR2007101602370_pf.html

[rodeodance]

1. But the problem has been that our WH is single minded---focus on Terrorism---for the sake of

winning elections. pure and simple

[DeepModem Mom]

3. The title of John Dean's book: "Broken Government." Their interest is in power, not governing. nt

[tanyev]

2. Poof. There goes the Republicans-are-tough-on-crime myth.

Of course, it's hard to be tough when you and your cronies are committing many of them.