A Sign Of The Times:

Violence To Increase
Before The Return of Jesus Christ

As It Was In The Days Of Noah

 

But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be (Matt. 24:37-39).

The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth (Gen. 6:11-13).
 

 

Mexico Outraged Over Corrupt Police, Kidnappings

Aug 24, 2008
Mexico Outraged Over Corrupt Police, Kidnappings
By MARK STEVENSON / Associated Press Writer
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iQI1nT0VnJsXZQ3VPmoUlrmJcAIAD92N43JG0

     MEXICO CITY - After kidnappers in police uniforms set up a fake checkpoint to snatch 14-year-old Fernando Marti off a Mexico City street, his businessman father paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in ransom, and waited for his son's safe return. Instead, the boy and his driver turned up dead, their bodies found in car trunks. Days later, prosecutors alleged that a police detective was a key participant in the kidnapping plot. The suspicions of police involvement in kidnap-killings have moved a nation where many had grown numb to kidnappings and the drug cartels' beheadings and midday shootouts. Mass street protests are planned in several cities, and some lawmakers are even changing their minds about opposition to capital punishment.

     "They should put their eyes out, so they can't commit any more crimes," said Ignacio Noriega, a 26-year-old university student who says he no longer feels safe anywhere. "Prison isn't a solution anymore. They just form their own gangs inside prison and come out stronger." As the government convened a national security meeting Thursday to deal with the problem, police reported that 150 residents of a community just west of Mexico City savagely beat and threatened to kill two alleged thieves before handing them over to state police. The administration of President Felipe Calderon is considering tough new anti-crime measures such as separate, more secure prisons for kidnappers and a national database of the largely unregistered cell phones frequently used by criminal gangs.

     Mexico has one of the world's highest kidnapping rates, according to the anti-violence group IKV Pax Christi. Kidnappings are up 9.1 percent this year, averaging 65 per month nationwide, according to the Attorney General's Office, which blames a growing web of drug cartels, cops, former cops and informants who point out potentially lucrative victims. But most kidnappings go unreported, for fear of the police. The nonprofit Citizens' Institute for Crime Studies estimates the real kidnapping rate to be more than 500 per month. Alejandro Cesar Zamudio, a commander of Mexico City detectives, defended the innocence of the officer implicated in the Marti case, saying the allegations were motivated by rivalries within the department. But Mexico City's top cop, Public Safety Secretary Manuel Mondragon, acknowledged that "a spiderweb of corruption has penetrated many parts of our department."

     Rich Mexicans have long resigned themselves to hiring private security teams and negotiators to deal with the threat. But now, even middle-class people are at risk, and kidnappers are increasingly killing their captives, even if a ransom is paid. Just three days before Marti's decomposed body was found on Aug. 1, a family of six was found dead in their home in western Jalisco state, allegedly targeted by kidnappers aided by corrupt cops. Four victims, including two children, were shot in the head. A teenage boy's throat was slashed. His mother was asphyxiated with a plastic bag. One of the family's sons had been kidnapped and released after a ransom was paid, but the gang — allegedly aided by a corrupt cop in the state anti-kidnapping squad — demanded they hand over more cash. The gang killed the family after they realized the police officer was part of the scheme, prosecutors say.

     Anger also boiled over last week when residents of the central Mexico town of Tlapanala managed to surround and disarm a gang of seven kidnappers posing as police. They held them for 24 hours, pounding the men to bloody pulps. Mexico abandoned the death penalty long ago and considers life sentences to be cruel and unusual punishment. Only in 2005 did Mexico agree to extradite suspects facing life sentences in the United States. But this week, the small Green Party proposed reinstating capital punishment for police who participate in kidnappings, or for kidnappers who kill their victims. Calderon has proposed life imprisonment for the worst kidnapping cases, currently punishable by 50 years. The Attorney General's Office says increasingly diversified organized crime cartels "now operate in drug trafficking, kidnapping and money laundering, among other things, with no central control or any one gang dominating any of the criminal activities.

 

Mass Murder Since World War II To Present
 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_murder)

     According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties), the total estimated human loss of life caused by World War II was roughly 72 million people, making it the deadliest and most destructive war in human history. The civilian toll was around 47 million, including 20 million deaths due to war-related famine and disease. The military toll was about 25 million, including the deaths of about 4 million prisoners of war in captivity. The Allies lost approximately 61 million people, and the Axis powers lost 11 million. The following is a list of human death from state sponsored "conflicts" since World War II to the present (the figures include the low and high end of the scale estimate):

     In recent years, terrorists have performed acts of mass murder to intimidate a society and draw attention to their causes. Examples of major terrorist incidents involving mass murder of more than 100 individual include:

 

In Addition: Civilian Homicides Worldwide

     According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder#Demographics), there are an estimated 55,000 murders in Brazil every year, about 30,000 murders committed annually in Russia, approximately 25,000 murders in Colombia (in 2005, murders went down to 15,000), approximately 20,000 murders each year in South Africa, approximately 17,000 murders in the United States (666,160 murders from 1960 to 1996), approximately 15,000 murders in Mexico, approximately 11,000 murders in Venezuela, approximately 6,000 murders in El Salvador, approximately 1,600 murders in Jamaica, approximately 1000 murders in France, approximately 580 murders per year in Canada, and approximately 200 murders in Chile. The murder rate in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea is 23 times that of London. Murder demographics are affected by the improvement of trauma care, leading to reduced lethality of violent assaults - thus the murder rate may not necessarily indicate the overall level of social violence.

 

Why Desensitized People Don’t Care?

Aug 24, 2008
TV and Film Violence Reaches a New High
By cybercollege.com
http://www.cybercollege.com/violence.htm

TV and Film Violence Reaches a New High

     "By the time the average U.S. child starts elementary school he or she will have seen 8,000 murders and 100,00 acts of violence on TV."   -New Scientist, 2007

     The Effects of TV and Film Violence: There are many problems in linking media violence to violence in society.  First, as suggested, only a small percent of those who watch violence are responsible for violent acts. Most of us are seemingly unaffected by it. Even though we can't establish a simple, direct, cause-and-effect relationship between media violence and violence in our society, we can draw some conclusions from the data.

     Studies show that people who watch a lot of TV violence not only behave more aggressively, but are more prone to hold attitudes that favor violence and aggression as a way of solving conflicts. These viewers also tend to be less trusting of people and more prone to see the world as a hostile place. "An extensive study in five Massachusetts' communities found a relationship between viewing media violence and the acceptance of sexual assault, social violence, and even alcohol use." The unrealistic element of TV and film violence seems to come as a surprise to some.  A young gang member who was admitted to a New York ER after being shot seemed amazed to find that getting shot was not only traumatic but excruciatingly painful.  He was  blaming the doctors and nurses for his pain, since on TV getting shot didn't seem to be all that big of a deal.

     Studies also show that media violence also has a desensitizing effect on viewers. As a result, specific levels of violence become more acceptable over time. It then takes more and more graphic violence to shock (and hold) an audience. History gives us many examples. To cite just one, the famous Roman Circuses started out being a rather tame form of entertainment.  But in an effort to excite audiences, violence and rape were introduced in the arena settings.  Subsequently, as audiences were use to seeing these things, they then demanded more and more, until the circuses eventually became violent, bloody and grotesque, and hundreds, if not thousands, of  hapless people died in the process of providing "entertainment."

     There are clear indications the long-term effects of exposure to media violence will lead to undesirable social consequences. These negative social effects will undoubtedly be accelerated as violence becomes more graphic in an effort to attract and hold film and TV audiences. In looking over the evidence of the increasing levels of film and TV violence it is now taking to satisfy viewers and the resulting effects on society, David Putnam, a noted film director, simply observed, "We are destroying ourselves." Violence is being used as a superficial way of grabbing and holding an audience. Since the commercial aspect of this topic is important, it may be significant that a well documented study by the American Psychological Association shows that commercials in violent TV shows are not as effective in selling products as commercials in other types of TV programming.

For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you (1 John 3:11-13).

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