B. THE PROBLEM

   The first page/post, A. The Introduction, stated that "...there are almost 46 million citizens living in poverty.  The national debt continues to escalate. We are constantly bombarded with news reports of abusive behavior including police brutality and corporate power abuse.  Obesity rates have increased dramatically.  Millions of Americans are unemployed.  Economic disparity continues to increase, the wealthiest dominating the political process."  The following is the sources of that information:

1. POVERTY  On 7/4/2013 the U.S. Census Bureau reported the U.S. population numbered 316,148,990.  In 2013 the official poverty rate in the U.S. was 14.5 %  of the U.S. population (ap. 45,841,600 people) living in poverty (http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/incpovhlth/2013/highlights.html). The term "extreme poverty" is used to designate those households living on less than two dollars per person per day in a given month before government benefits.  According to a Stanford University study (http://web.stanford.edu/group/scspi/_media/pdf/pathways/summer_2014/Pathways_Summer_2014_ShaeferEdin.pdf) in 1996, there were 663,000 households living in extreme poverty.  By mid-2011, there were 1.65 million.  3.55 million children were living in those 1.65 million poor households in any given month of 2011.

2. THE NATIONAL DEBT  Go to the national debt clock (http://www.nationaldebtclocks.org/debtclock/unitedstates) to see the rate of increase in real time.  As of this writing on 12/12/2014 it is approaching $18 trillion.  One trillion equals 1000 billion and 1000 x 1000 million.

3. ABUSIVE BEHAVIOR According to Webster's dictionary, as a noun, abuse means mistreatment, injury, deception, insult, coarse language.  As a verb it means to treat badly, insult, use coarse language, injure, deceive.  To complete that definition we would add "violating basic rights".    According to Webster "violating" means "encroaching, i.e. advancing beyond the proper, original or customary limits".  Rights are standard privileges set by law or reason. Why do we think abuse is a significant problem in the U.S. that might be positively impacted if the Government were to take a greater interest in protecting every one's individual rights?  A few statistics may help explain.  They are as follows:
~~~According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, there were ap. 680,000 individual distinct verified child maltreatment cases in the United States and Puerto Rico in 2012. That averages out to 45/hour.
~~~A National Center for Education Statistics survey of  24,456,000 students 12-18 years of age  reported that 27.8 % of the students were bullied at school and cyber bullied anywhere during the 2011 school year.   (www.nces.ed.gov/pubs2013/...)  To be more informed about this problem watch the DVD documentary Bully written and directed by Lee Hirsch.
~~~  According to the 2010 Workplace Bullying Survey, available at http://www.workplacebullying.org/wbiresearch/2010-wbi-national-survey/, 35% of those surveyed had been bullied at work at some time during their working lives and an additional 15% of those surveyed, while not victims of bullying, had witnessed workplace bullying.  Of those doing the bullying 38% were female and 62% were male.
~~~The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that at least 500,000 Americans 60 years of age or older are abused annually.  This is believed to be a low estimate since so many elderly people are afraid or unable to report abuse.  This info comes from www.cdc.gov/features/elderabuse/.

~~~An article in the Huffington Post by Doug Kendall, Founder and President of the Constitutional Accountability Center posted 11/9/12 is entitled Supreme Court Review Puts Voting  Rights Act in Jeopardy After Election Proves Its Necessity (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/doug_kendall/supreme-court-review-puts_b_2104648.btm).  The article points out that conservative state political leaders nationwide introduced restrictive voter ID laws, tried to shorten early voting hours, change voting poll locations, and change voting district boundaries prior to the 2012 presidential election.  These actions would have negatively impacted many poor, young, elderly and minority voters' ability to vote.  To make exercising people's right to vote more difficult is abusive.

~~~ The Cato Institutes's 2010 National Police Misconduct Statistics and Reporting Project by David Packman (4/5/11) (http/www.policemisconduct.net/statistics/) involved a representative national sample of 6,613 law enforcement officers.  While the majority of American policemen are hard-working, decent and fair, Packman reported, based on credible reports,  that 23.8% of the officers surveyed had used excessive force; 18% had engaged in forcible non-consensual sexual activity; 7.2% were reported for fraud/theft/robbery; 6.8% for false arrest; 4.6% for illegal raids/searches; 3.6% for civil rights violations; 3.2% for dishonesty.  The same officers may have been reported for multiple abusive offenses.  Nevertheless, there is evidence that at least 23.8% of police officers nationwide have practiced authority abuse.  This 23.8% is making the whole force look bad.  They need to be weeded out and fired.

~~~ According to DOD Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Fact Sheet, DMDC Survey available at http://www.sapr.mil/public/docs/research/WGRA_survey_Fact_Sheet.pdf, unwanted sexual contact for military women increased in 2012.                                                            

~~According to the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) website (www.nyc.gov/html/about/about.shtml) more than 400,000 New Yorkers reside in NYCHA's 334 public housing developments.  An NBC Dateline story airing on 1/5/2014 focused on two public housing apartments located in poorer neighborhoods of New York City.  The story related the difficulties facing parents with asthmatic children living in those apartments.  There was a mold problem in both bathrooms because of leaky pipes.  The presence of mold led to asthmatic episodes for the children.  Asthmatic episodes are potentially deadly.  The story showed how difficult and time consuming it was for these parents to get the NYCHA to correct the problem.  Landlords responding slowly to tenants' genuine health threats posed by conditions in their buildings, is another example of authority abuse.

~~~ The Center for Disease Control and Prevention, a federal government agency, published the report National Intimate Partner Sexual Violence  Survey (NISVS). This survey questioned non-institutionalized English and Spanish speaking people 18 years of age and older.  According to the 2010 Summary Report (www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/nisvs/) 18% of women and 1% of men have been "raped in their lifetime".  Stalking has happened to 15% of the women in this country and 5% of men.  Intimate partners have victimized 25% of the country's women and 14% of the men with severe physical violence.  According to this report almost 20 million women and 770,000 men had been raped during their lives and 50.5 million women and 23.5 million men had experienced non-rape unwanted and coerced sexual victimizations.

~~~  According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports, Crime in the U.S., 2012 Crime Clock Statistics (www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-U.S.-2012/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/national-data), a violent crime occurred in the U.S. in 2012 at an average of every 26 seconds.  That included one murder every 35.4 minutes; one forcible rape every 6.2 minutes; one robbery every 1.5 minutes; one aggravated assault every 41.5 seconds.

~~~  Property crimes are those committed "without force or threat of force against the victims" (www.fbi.bov/stats-services/crimestats).  They include burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. These are all abusive crimes that involve a violation of rights, financial harm, and/or deception.  Property crimes nationwide in 2012, even though there were 14% less than in 2003, were estimated at 8,975,438.  According to the 2012 Crime Clock referenced above there was a property crime committed every 3.5 seconds in 2012.  That included one burglary every 15 seconds; one Larceny theft every 5.1 seconds; and one motor vehicle theft every 43.7 seconds.

~~~ The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data for 1997 through 1999 indicates there were 1,817,000 victims of fraud, counterfeiting and embezzlement during that three year period (www.fbi.bov/stats-services/crimestats).

~~~ According to an FBI report on organized crime, The FBI 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment - Emerging Trends (www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/vc_majorthefts/gangs), there are approximately 1.4 million active street, prison and outlaw motorcycle gang members in the U.S. and Puerto Rico comprising 33,000 gangs.  In 2009 there were a total one million active gang members.  For the years 2001-2010 there were 12,169 complaints of gang violence which resulted in 23,094 convictions.  Gangs are responsible for 48% of violent crimes in most jurisdictions.   According to the FBI, members of at least 53 different gangs have served in or are affiliated with the U.S. military.  Although all branches have been infiltrated by gang members, most military personnel gang members and gang member dependents of military personnel are affiliated with the U.S. Army, Army Reserves, and the National Guard.

~~~-The FBI estimates that the Italian Mafia has 25,000 members with 250,000 affiliates worldwide.  There are more than 3,000 members and affiliates in the U.S. mostly around Philadelphia, New York and Southern New Jersey.  That's just one of a number of organized crime syndicates in this country (www.fbi.gov>Aboutus>whatweinvestigate>organizedcrime).

~~~ A research report Victim Costs and Consequences: A New Look by Miller, Cohen and Wiersema, January, 1996 presented to the U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice (www.njrs.gov/pdffiles/victcost.pdf) found the cost of violent and property crimes to victims to be $450 billion annually.  That does not include the costs of most white collar crimes and cyber crime.

4. CHRONIC DISEASE  According to a letter from the State of Obesity (http://stateofobesity.org/letter/) , a project of the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, "Over the past 30 years, adult obesity rates have sharply risen, doubling since 1980."  The chronic diseases associated with obesity and overweight have also been increasing.
       To get a more informed view of the obesity problem, watch the DVD documentary Fed Up narrated by Katie Couric.  This movie reveals what some may interpret as evidence that the food industry has the power to influence the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.  This is one more reason that the common people need to organize and demand the government protect our right to health.
       A particular area of concern in regard to obesity and other diseases is the toxic man-made substances in our air, in our water, in our food and in our bodies.  To find out more about that, read The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard.

5. UNEMPLOYMENT  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.htm) the current unemployment rate (Nov., 2014) of 5.8% represents 9.1 million people.   There are probably more workers than that who are not being counted because they have given up on government help in finding a job.

6. ECONOMIC DISPARITY According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2008-2012 American Community Survey (http://factfinder2:census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_12_5YR_DP02&prodtype=table), of the 115,226,802 households in the country, 5,345,209 or 4.6% received income and benefits of $200,000 or more.  7.2% of the country's households (8,272,970) received less than $10,000 in income and benefits.  For more evidence of the economic inequality of America, go to www.savingrepublic.blogspot.com,
Section A.

7. INFLUENCE OF WEALTH ON POLITICS For a full discussion of this topic go to the blog www.savingrepublic.blogspot.com.  This blog explains that our national government is on the verge of or has already become a Plutocracy.  Section B of this blog points out that members of Congress are paid enough to put them in the Upper Class, that they are more responsive to their upper class constituents than to those from the lower classes, and that many of the decisions that are made by all three branches of the Federal Government benefit the wealthy, often to the detriment of the lower classes.  The information is thoroughly documented.