In my experience, the reputation of America in other parts of the developed world is that of a one-time paradise now overridden with crime. In fact, I've spoken with some foreign citizens (exchange students) whose families back home are concerned that, while in America, they'll be robbed, raped or worse. But, is it really that dangerous?All it takes is a look at the news to find that, in some parts of America, it really is true. For example, in Chicago in 2016 there were 4,331 shooting victims (almost 12 per day), including 762 homicides. Who'd want to visit a place like that? Maybe citizens of St. Louis, Baltimore, Detroit or New Orleans would feel safer in Chicago. Those cities ranked in the top 50 most dangerous cities in the world according to worldatlas.com. That same report listed only 14 cities worldwide more dangerous than St. Louis. How embarrassing.So, how did it get this way? Many would say it's just our culture. Hollywood has been churning out super violent movies for decades. And, video games must take some of the blame with their gory, realistic and desensitizing carnage. However, the makers of these movies and video games tell us the violence they depict is just a reflection of ourselves. But, the constant exposure has to be affecting us. Even so, I don't believe either of these contributors is the most responsible. That distinction is shared by the news media and the courts.The news media are supposed to serve as our watchdog on government. But, with that power comes their ability to control what we see and, therefore, control our opinions. Making it worse is that they choose what to report based on their own bias. Unfortunately, what we've seen lately is the vilification of the police. This was no more apparent than in 2014 in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson. The incident involved the seemingly justified shooting of black criminal Michael Brown by white police officer Darren Wilson. The warped coverage of the incident sparked a frenzied nationwide attack on the police and gave birth to the domestic terrorist organization known as Black Lives Matter, as well as a general distrust of law enforcement.Ferguson, MissouriMedia creates "high profile" and, in criminal trials, high profile means justice is highly unlikely. There has never been a more high profile criminal case than the media circus that was the 1995 OJ Simpson trial and how, though obviously guilty, he was found to be innocent. The same thing has happened to other guilty celebrities, such as Don King and Robert Blake ( oddee.com ). But, the miscarriage of justice isn't just applied in high profile cases. Guilty defendants are routinely given every opportunity to be found not-guilty.We've all heard that the prison population in the United States is higher than that of any other developed nation. While that's true, I would suggest that it should be doubled. I know that sounds crazy but, if you were to listen to the police radio in any large American city, you would agree that there is a huge number of criminals running free. A deeper check into those people would reveal that nearly all of them have had some presence before the court. Yet, here they still are; free to terrorize our communities.These local terrorists are free because of such things as trial rules, concurrent sentences, parole, good time, probation and, worse; the judge and prosecutor's perceived ability to be reelected and, worse yet... bias. Here's an example of the latter from Elie Mystal: Mystal, an editor and contributor to the law blog "Above The Law," posted an article urging all black Americans who end up on juries to engage in “jury nullification” by automatically voting to acquit all blacks accused of crimes, especially that of murder against white victims and to do so no matter how much evidence is brought to bear against the suspect ( breitbart.com ). Mystal is a lawyer; an officer of the court.Ridiculous court officials and court rulings aren't a new phenomenon, either. Our judicial system has been failing us for years. A well-known example from 1992 demonstrates just that. During the Los Angeles riots of that year, poor Reginald Denny inadvertently drove his truck into the middle of the chaos. At an intersection, a mob forced him to stop the truck allowing thugs Antoine Miller, Anthony Brown, Lance Parker, Henry Watson, Damian Williams and Gary Williams, all previously arrested gangsters, to extract him, rob him, try to blow up his truck and then beat him nearly to death with a claw hammer. All of this depravity was broadcast to the world on live television. For this vicious attack, Watson, Miller and Parker received probation, Brown received a two-year sentence that was served concurrent to another sentence, Gary Williams received a three year sentence and Damian Williams; a ten year sentence.So, what's to be done? For one thing, we must pay attention. Learn what companies sponsor irresponsible news media reports. We also need to know who the judges and prosecutors are who are letting us down. In addition, the system must be made to serve the victim and not the criminal and this can't be done unless those of us who care get involved. But, with humans comes inherent human weakness. Nothing will work unless we invoke the sovereign power of God and His holy justice.Romans 1:18Scales of Justice illustration by Toby Hudson