Source: dollarvigilante

The US, by a wide margin, is the world leader in kidnapping and the kidnappers are becoming more predatory and beginning to demand higher ransoms as the economic environment in the US continues to decline.

In 2008 alone, 182,422 individuals, were either accosted by armed criminals and often-times attacked in their own houses, taken and then put in cages throughout the US.  While 16,965 of them may have deserved to be kidnapped, 165,457 of them, or 90.7%, had done nothing violent to anybody.

The following chart shows the total amount kidnapped per country, showing the US is by far the largest of any country on earth.  The US has 5% of the population of the world but does 22% of the kidnapping.

The rise in kidnappings in the US has been dramatic and has become epidemic as can be seen here:

AMERICAN APARTHEID

The kidnappers target ethnic minorities by a wide margin.  White males have been getting kidnapped at a rate of 736 per 100,000.  Latinos at 1,862 per 100,000.  And, black males at 4,789 per 100,000.  This can be best seen via the following chart:

In South Africa under apartheid, in 1993, black males were kidnapped at a rate of 851 per 100,000.  In the US, black males are kidnapped at a rate of 4,789 per 100,000.  The US apartheid system has more than a 500% higher kidnapping rate of blacks than the South African apartheid.

RANSOMS RAISED

The kidnappers, hard up for money in these tough economic times have begun to raise their ransoms.  Kidnappers in Arizona allow you to visit the person kidnapped but they demand a ....

And now one criminal cartel that controls the area called Riverside County in California has stated that they will be kidnapping people and demanding a ransom of $142.42 pe....  Cartel boss, Jeff Stone, released this statement to the media about their increase in operations:

"I think we're blazing a new trail here.  In these very challenging economic times, I believe this can be a source of revenue ...I believe this can return 3 to 5 million (dollars) a year during these very challenging economic times."

Other cartels throughout the US are likely watching this with great interest.

KIDNAPPING CONDITIONS IN THE US

Often times those kidnapped in the US are placed in very overcrowded conditions, brutally beaten and sodomized by other hostages.  One particularly brutal cartel boss who operates in the southern Arizona corridor, with the nickname "Sheriff Joe", has been very active abducting people from their cars after leaving bars and putting them in concentration camps in the Arizona desert at temperatures often above 110F and feeding them spoiled food and dressing them in pink jumpsuits - a strange fetish of the crime boss.

It has been hard to curtail these kidnappings because in many cases these cartels are supported by the locals who see them as having their best interests in mind.

Sadly, in the US culture, those who get kidnapped are often turned into an underclass and shunned after their release.  People who have been kidnapped are often not given opportunities to work nor to travel after they have been sequestered.

VISITORS TO THE US ARE ADVISED TO USE GREAT CAUTION

Those looking to visit the US should look to other locations nearby like Mexico where the rate of official kidnappings is more than 90% lower at 64 per 100,000 people.  Plus, the conditions for those kidnapped in Mexico can be markedly better in some circumstances.  A recent search of a caged area where hostages are kept in Acapulco turned up 19 prostitutes, two sacks of marijuana, numerous bottles of alcohol, 100 fighting cocks and two peacocks.

If safety is your prime concern then it would be wise for travellers to avoid the US at this time and to look to safer locales such as China, Russia, or Mexico where your chance of being abducted is significantly lower and if you are abducted, your chances of having a really fun time while being held hostage are markedly higher as hostages held in one Acapulco location can assuredly attest.