By Michael Snyder – The Economic Collapse Blog

All over America, rates of violent crime are absolutely soaring.  As you will see below, violent crime overall shot up by 20 percent in Los Angeles last year, and the police are telling people that “they need to be able to protect themselves” because the police may not be able to get there in time when they call.  Thanks to deep budget cuts, police departments across the nation are already severely undermanned, and our major cities are now seeing crime rates increase at a pace that we have not seen in ages.  In a previous article, I encouraged my readers to focus on the five basics of preparation – food, water, shelter, energy and self-defense.  Of those five, it is often self-defense that is the most neglected.  When bad people break into your house in the middle of the night intending to do bad things, what are you going to do?  Many of us have not had to think about that for a long time, but now conditions are rapidly changing in America.

If you don’t believe me, perhaps you will believe the head of the union for the LAPD.  According to him, people living in L.A. “need to be able to protect themselves” because the police “can’t guarantee we’re going to get there in time to help you”…

“The citizens need to know they need to be able to protect themselves because if they call 911, we can’t guarantee we’re going to get there in time to help you,” says Police Protective League President Jamie McBride.

He told Paige that Thursday morning between 5:30 and 10 a.m., there were just three patrol cars assigned to the West LA division. Two cars to protect more than 200,000 people in a 65 square mile radius.

“West Los Angeles, at the minimum, should have seven patrol units, two-man units working,” McBride said.

Have you ever been to Los Angeles?

I have, and even in the best of times it can be quite a mean place.

And of course these are not the best of times.  In fact, the overall rate of violent crime in the city was up by 20 percent last year…

Continue reading at The Economic Collapse Blog: Los Angeles Police Urge Residents ‘To Protect Themselves’ As Violent Crime Skyrockets

About the author:

Michael T. Snyder is a graduate of the University of Florida law school and he worked as an attorney in the heart of Washington D.C. for a number of years.

Today, Michael is best known for his work as the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The American Dream. 

Read his new book The Beginning of the End