Bridgeport, Connecticut Police Chief Armando Perez knows why crime is a problem in his city.

It’s not guns.

It’s not poverty.

It’s atheism, according to a story first reported by the Connecticut Post and Hearst Connecticut Media.

“We need God in our lives”… Perez said Saturday to a group of around 50 people following a police solidarity march. … “The problems that we’re having is because people have abandoned church, people have abandoned God, and that cannot happen,” he said. … Perez, in his remarks, advocated a lot more praying. “Let’s bring God back in our lives, back in our church — bring our kids — in our city, in our schools — absolutely,” Perez told the crowd.

Let’s solve the crime problem, he said, by violating the Constitution!

Perez, a Roman Catholic, doesn’t seem to understand that the least religious nations are also the ones with the lowest crime rates. As sociologist Phil Zuckerman wrote last year:

Take homicide. According to the United Nations’ 2011 Global Study on Homicide, of the 10 nations with the highest homicide rates, all are very religious, and many — such as Colombia, Mexico, El Salvador and Brazil — are among the most theistic nations in the world. Of the nations with the lowest homicide rates, nearly all are very secular, with seven ranking among the least theistic nations, such as Sweden, Japan, Norway and the Netherlands.

Perez didn’t back down when confronted about his remarks. Instead, he doubled down on them. With an odd caveat.

When asked to clarify his remarks, Perez said that he didn’t advocate a specific religious belief, though he stood by his statement about religion in schools.

So… he still wants his community to violate the law by forcing religion onto schoolchildren. He just doesn’t care which one. Lovely.

If he really believes this nonsense, then why bother with police at all? Just replace them with pastors and let’s see how that works out. If the religion everyone needs doesn’t matter, why doesn’t his staff start converting everyone to Islam?

Or maybe he should get better at doing his job instead of blaming factors he doesn’t understand.

(via The New Civil Rights Movement)



