Say what?

Take a quick glance through FP's latest list, The World's Most Unexpected Crime Waves, and you run across the usual culprits: white-collar fraudsters, marginalised youths, disenchanted elderly, drug gangs...

Hold on a second there - did you just read senior citizens along with drug gangs in a list of crime waves? Yes you did. One in seven crimes in Japan has been committed by the over-60 crowd last year, the most common offenses being pickpocketing and robbery (a man robbed a grocery store in Nagoya and escaped with the aid of his walking cane). There has been a significant increase in assaults commited by the elderly as well. The problem is so bad that the government is spending 8.3 billion yen to build special senior wards - complete with walkers and support rails.

As FP rightly said, it is difficult not to laugh at the visual of a man, who can barely walk, threatening a cashier with a knife. Amusement aside, however, this is a serious problem. The reason that so many seniors are turning to crime is because their world has been ruined by a combination of Japan's "stagnant economy and the breakdown of the traditional family structure" (emphasis added by me). In other words, besides their country's economic woes, many seniors enter a life of crime to make ends meet because they do not have enough younger family members to support them.

Oh, how I hope and pray that the pro-lifers do not get the idea to use this to support their opinions. I would not put it past them. Remember the Krispy Kreme Abortion Doughnuts and Elisabeth Hasselbeck using Ashley Judd's PSA against aerial wolf hunting as a segue to pro-life ramble (you can watch that craziness below)?

The View: Elisabeth Hasselbeck On Wolf Killings
by TheDlisted