1991-1995 was the First Great Downturn - started with the Rodney King Beatings and ended with the Release of Windows 95 and start of the Dot Com Bubble.

Rodney King Beatings
Luby's Shooting
LA Riots
Ruby Ridge
1993 World Trade Center Bombing
Waco Siege
The controversy of some Beavis and Butthead episodes (like when a 5-year old boy in Ohio lit his trailer on fire and when a kid dropped a bowling ball on a baby's head)
Rwanda Genocide
Suicide of Kurt Cobain
Oklahoma City Bombing

2012-2016 is the Second Great Downturn - started with the shooting of Trayvon Martin and ended with the Hillary supporters gradually accepting the Trump victory by the end of 2016.
Trayvon Martin getting shot
Sandy Hook Shooting
Boston Marathon Bombing
Crimean Crisis/Ukranian Tension
Isla Vista Shooting
Ferguson Rioting/Shooting of Michael Brown
Charleston Church Shooting
Pulse Shooting
2016 Election Rioting

Have you taken into consideration the two World Wars?

Have you taken into consideration the two World Wars?


I meant in recent history, and I remember at one point a guy here called this age the "Great Downturn".

No, we are living in prosperous and relatively peaceful times. A few anecdotes and isolated incidents doesn't really change that.

Yeah we are in one considering the recent event was the kidnapping and beating of a disabled person; however it could end soon now that Obama is leaving next Friday and the entire Republican administration taking place. I'm not sure if anyone has noticed, but I was looking at the shooters political views and they were all Democrats. Maybe the strategy has reversed back to their normal sides.


No, we are living in prosperous and relatively peaceful times. A few anecdotes and isolated incidents doesn't really change that.
That wasn't just a few anecdotes and isolated incidents, that downturn was actually a nightmare. Those events slightly rose the crime rate for a short time. Now, I'm not saying that it will continue to increase, but it could expand especially now that CA is ready for war on Trump. 

Yeah we are in one considering the recent event was the kidnapping and beating of a disabled person; however it could end soon now that Obama is leaving next Friday and the entire Republican administration taking place. I'm not sure if anyone has noticed, but I was looking at the shooters political views and they were all Democrats. Maybe the strategy has reversed back to their normal sides.
That wasn't just a few anecdotes and isolated incidents, that downturn was actually a nightmare. Those events slightly rose the crime rate for a short time. Now, I'm not saying that it will continue to increase, but it could expand especially now that CA is ready for war on Trump.


2014 was the safest year since the early 1960s for murder rates, safest since the 1970s for violent crime crates.

And those are still isolated incidents. The US has 16000 murders a year (40+ murders a day). 20 people getting shot is a drop in the bucket, and an example of clustering illusion. If murders were 100% randomly distributed throughout the year, you would still see the appearance of clusters of murders (which is what a mass-shooting/massacre essentially is), even though there isn't an actual (meaningful) cluster or spats of shooting. Humans are good at seeing patterns where there aren't any.

OP said the downturn ended in 2016, so he's not including Trump I don't think. The crime rates for this downturn era are already established. It was a very safe time to live in.

2014 was the safest year since the early 1960s for murder rates, safest since the 1970s for violent crime crates.

And those are still isolated incidents. The US has 16000 murders a year (40+ murders a day). 20 people getting shot is a drop in the bucket, and an example of clustering illusion. Humans are good at seeing patterns where there aren't any.

OP said the downturn ended in 2016, so he's not including Trump I don't think. The crime rates for this downturn era are already established. It was a very safe time to live in.
That's because the high crime rates back then came from gangs and drugs which are a bad combination and contributed that in the first place. The past few years fortunately didn't have any of that, but that didn't stop the events that took place from being prevented. There still hasn't been an explanation on how and why the crime rate declined rapidly, and there have been many theories on it.

If they were isolated incidents, then how come most of the perpetrators had a motive to target certain folks and were connected in some way? If you noticed, all of them were Democrats!

That's because the high crime rates back then came from gangs and drugs which are a bad combination and contributed that in the first place. The past few years fortunately didn't have any of that, but that didn't stop the events that took place from being prevented. There still hasn't been an explanation on how and why the crime rate declined rapidly, and there have been many theories on it.

If they were isolated incidents, then how come most of the perpetrators had a motive to target certain folks and were connected in some way? If you noticed, all of them were Democrats!


Aren't you moving the goal posts a bit? Murders are murders. Reason doesn't seem to be a criteria in that list OP posted.

How does them being Democrats make it not an isolated incident or anecdotal evidence? ??? The plural of anecdote isn't data.

George Zimmerman and Dylann Roof being Democrats is news to me nonetheless.

Aren't you moving the goal posts a bit? Murders are murders. Reason doesn't seem to be a criteria in that list OP posted.

How does them being Democrats make it not an isolated incident or anecdotal evidence? ??? The plural of anecdote isn't data.

George Zimmerman and Dylann Roof being Democrats is news to me nonetheless.
No. I already said it could end this year with Trump coming in as the next president, but it might not since CA is willing to have a war with him and the administration.

Well, with the exception of Martin, some were planned with someone BTS giving them instructions. Some of these were a cause and effect. Not just the shootings and bombings, but even the police encounters and the protests/riots as well. Like I said, that whole downturn was an endless nightmare.

There were three main downturns in the 20th century, in America.

The first roughly from 1917 to 1919, because of WWI and Influenza Pandemic.

The second downturn was the worst of the three. The brutal and dark times of 1929 to 1945, and obviously includes The Great Depression and WWII.

And then there was a lighter downturn from 1973 to 1982. Inflation in general, rise of oil prices, a recession, John Lennon's death, assassination attempts of Ronald Reagan and the Pope.

2014 was the safest year since the early 1960s for murder rates, safest since the 1970s for violent crime crates.

And those are still isolated incidents. The US has 16000 murders a year (40+ murders a day). 20 people getting shot is a drop in the bucket, and an example of clustering illusion. If murders were 100% randomly distributed throughout the year, you would still see the appearance of clusters of murders (which is what a mass-shooting/massacre essentially is), even though there isn't an actual (meaningful) cluster or spats of shooting. Humans are good at seeing patterns where there aren't any.

OP said the downturn ended in 2016, so he's not including Trump I don't think. The crime rates for this downturn era are already established. It was a very safe time to live in.


I blame the media, Liberal and Conservative. The media makes the 2010's appear like the most violent decade because they pick and choose what to concentrate on, or air.

I blame the media, Liberal and Conservative. The media makes the 2010's appear like the most violent decade because they pick and choose what to concentrate on, or air.


I agree to an extent, the news media needs to not sensationalize stories and keep their readers aware of the actual reality of world. At the same time, as social media grows, and we're becoming increasingly connected to all the world's information on a 24/7 basis, the reader also needs to take responsibility. "Murders are becoming more common" is purely the perception of the reader, it wasn't the news media who told people that (assuming no false information was spread). All humans fall for this trap in one form or another, so I agree the news media is responsible for at least the sensationalism.

There were three main downturns in the 20th century, in America.

The first roughly from 1917 to 1919, because of WWI and Influenza Pandemic.

The second downturn was the worst of the three. The brutal and dark times of 1929 to 1945, and obviously includes The Great Depression and WWII.

And then there was a lighter downturn from 1973 to 1982. Inflation in general, rise of oil prices, a recession, John Lennon's death, assassination attempts of Ronald Reagan and the Pope.


I agree with these.

I would say we have been in a "downturn" since the 9/11 attacks in America and the Great Recession deepened it.  Things have never quite returned to normal like they were before 9/11.  Things really aren't that bad in America right now, but the general mood of our culture has a lot of angst.

I agree to an extent, the news media needs to not sensationalize stories and keep their readers aware of the actual reality of world. At the same time, as social media grows, and we're becoming increasingly connected to all the world's information on a 24/7 basis, the reader also needs to take responsibility. "Murders are becoming more common" is purely the perception of the reader, it wasn't the news media who told people that (assuming no false information was spread). All humans fall for this trap in one form or another, so I agree the news media is responsible for at least the sensationalism.


It's SENSATIONAL!

I agree with these.

I would say we have been in a "downturn" since the 9/11 attacks in America and the Great Recession deepened it.  Things have never quite returned to normal like they were before 9/11.  Things really aren't that bad in America right now, but the general mood of our culture has a lot of angst.


The 21st century's had a rough start.

It's SENSATIONAL!


A few months ago the right-leaning and very reputable French newspaper Le Figaro had the headline "2016: Une année sombre en Allemagne" (2016: A dark year in Germany)  and they based this on the axe murder at a festival, a "bomb" that set off a few days later, and a shooting at a mall not long after that, and they made a point of mentioning the 1 million refugees in the country. The axe murderer was just one murder out of a few hundred that occur in the country that year, the bomb turned out to be an accidental chemical explosion at a factory, and the mall shooter was a mentally ill German-born Iranian Christian boy who felt dejected after failing his high school exams and failing to enter university. That's an example of sensationalist reporting. Sadly, it sells papers.