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Dan Patrick says all crime committed by about 15 percent of population

By W. Gardner Selby October 9, 2015

Urging a positive view of law officers "that you and your family depend on every day," Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick went on to say the vast majority of citizens are law-abiding.

He put precise numbers on that. "You know,"  Patrick said during a Sept. 2, 2015, interview with David Brown of the Texas Standard, a statewide news affairs program based at KUT, the NPR affiliate in Austin, "100 percent of the crime is committed, in estimate, by about 15 percent of the population." (We have regularly talked about our fact checks on the program.)

A curious listener emailed us. Could Patrick's 100/15 statement be so?

Evidently not, we concluded, and we never did pin down exactly how Patrick got to his formulation.

When something is incorrect and ridiculous, we light a match. Pants on Fire!

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Dan Patrick says all crime committed by about 15 percent of population